THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


HOW  TO  DEAL  WITH 
HUMAN  NATURE 
IN  BUSINESS 


A  Practical  Book  on  Doing 
Business  by  Correspondence, 
Advertising,  and  Salesmanship 


By  SHERWIN  CODY 

Author  of  "How  to  Do  Business  hy  Letter/*  "The  Art  of  Writing  and 
Speaking  the  English  Language/'  "Marshall  Brown, 
American  Business  Man/*  etc. 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1915 


Copyright,  1904,  1906,  1911,  by 
SIIERWIN  CODY 
Copyright,  1915,  by 
FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 
Published,  September,  1915 
All  rights  reserved 


c  -  ■  ^ 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFATORY— A  Scientific  Basis  xi 

I  PART  I— HUMAN  NATURE:  HOW  TO 

HANDLE  IT 

I.  National  Characteristics  3 

II.  Service  the  American  Principle  of 

Business  7 

"  III.  The  Business  World  Takes  Your  Own 

Valuation  of  Yourself  11 

IV.  Every  Man  Should  Have  His  Monopoly  16 

/^V.  The  Mind  and  How  it  Works  ....  19 

^VI.  Practical  Uses  of  the  Imaginative 

Method   36 

o 

-j/VII.  Practical  Principles  of  Appeal    ...  41 

VIII.  Proportion  and  Emphasis   52 

IX.  Analyzing  a  Business   57 

PART  II— CORRESPONDENCE 
Introductory — The  Form  of  the  Letter  ...  67 


Margins — Spacing — The  date  line — The  address 

— The  salutation — The  body  of  a  letter — The 
^  close — The  signature — The  envelop — The  punc- 

tuation — Eules  for  commas — Eules  for  semi- 
^  colons — Eules  for  colons — How  to  study  punc- 

tuation — How  to  master  the  form  of  letters. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


The  Conversational  Style  in  Letter- 


Natural  and  easy  way  to  begin  a  business  let- 
ter— Natural  and  easy  way  to  close  a  business 
letter — How  to  acquire  an  easy  business  style — 
Secretary's  letter  of  acknowledgment — Simple 
letter  enclosing  check  to  pay  a  bill — A  letter  of 
endorsement — Answer  to  an  inquiry — The  tele- 
graphic style — Colloquialisms  and  slang — An 
illustrative  chain  of  letters. 

Ordering  Goods  and  Handling  Inquiries  .  87 

Two  kinds  of  letters,  buying  and  selling — Order- 
ing goods — A  poor  letter  ordering  goods — The 
same  letter  properly  written — Answering  in- 
quiries— A  poor  answer  to  a  letter  ordering 
goods — The  right  answer  to  this  letter — A  poor 
reply  to  letter  of  inquiry — The  same  letter  re- 
written— Selling  letters  with  the  inquiries  they 
answer. 

System  in  Handling  Correspondence     .  104 

How  to  write  one  hundred  good  letters  a  day — 
Form-sentences — When  to  use  a  form-letter — 
When  not  to  use  form-letters — System  in 
freshening  publicity — Complaint-letters — A  poor 
answer  to  a  letter  of  complaint — The  same  letter 
rewritten — Form-chart  for  complaints.  \ 

Illustrative  Study  of  .the  Grocery  Business  114 

How  TO  Deal  With  Human  Nature  by 
Letter  127 


1.  When  to  Write  a  Short  Letter  and  When 


2.  How  to  Write  a  Letter  That  Will  Get 


Writing 


75 


a  Long  One  . 


127 


Attention  

Circular  letter  soliciting  advertising. 


128 


CONTENTS  V 

PAGE 

3.  How  to  Write  a  Letter  That  Will  De- 

velop Interest  132 

Letters  to  get  life  insurance  business. 

4.  How  to  Write  a  Letter  That  Will  Com- 

pel an  Answer  136 

5.  How  to  do  Business  With  a  Reasonable 

Customer  140 

A  system  to  keep  reasonable  customers  satis- 
fied. 

6.  How  to  do  Business  With  an  Irritable 

Customer   144 

Nagging  letters  and  how  to  handle  them. 

7.  How  to  do  Business  With  a  Woman     .  147 

The  deference  due  to  woman. 

8.  How  to  Write  to  a  Lady  on  a  Delicate 

Matter  151 

Delicate  letters — A  frank  letter  to  an  employee. 

9.  Giving  a  Letter  the  Proper  Tone — How 

to  Write  to  Your  Superior  ....  154 

10.  How  to  Write  to  a  Subordinate  .  .  .  158 
V.  Collections  by  Mail  163 


Letter  to  go  with  invoice,  always  required  on 
approval  shipment — Collection  follow-up  letters 
— A  reminder  to  take  cash  discount — For  small 
accounts  overdue — For  very  small  accounts  long 
overdue — Collections  from  dealers — A  collection 
letter  that  '  ^  drew  the  money  like  a  poultice. ' ' 

VI,  Using  Words  so  as  to  Make  People  do 

Things  175 

1.  The  Personal  Touch  .175 

Enthusiasm  the  corner-stone  of  success. 


n 


CONTENTS 


2.  How  to  Condense  178 

The  secret  of  condensation — The  first  full  let- 
ter— A  page  advertisement  or  short  letter — 
One-inch  magazine  advertisement. 

3.  Emphasis  in  Business  Writing  .    .     .  185 

An  example  of  display  for  emphasis — First  let- 
ter to  get  inquiries  for  $500  machine — Answer  to 
inquiries  brought  by  the  preceding  letter — Let- 
ter to  general  list  to  get  inquiries  for  $500 
machine. 


VII.  Salesmanship  in  Letters  and  in  Adver- 
tising  193 

1.  Five  Steps  in  Written  Salesmanship     .  193 
Poor  salesmanship. 

2.  Creating  Desire  199 

Poor  ways  to  begin  a  sales-letter — The  right 
way  to  begin  sales-letters. 

3.  Show  How  Your  Plan  Works  ....  202 
* '  Showing  How '  *  useful  in  selling  mining-stock. 

4.  Proving  Your  Statements  206 

Get  the  customer 's  point  of  view — How  to  handle 
testimonials. 

5.  Making  a  Man  Feel  Like  Ordering  .    .  211 

A  clever  business-winner. 

6.  Make  Ordering  Easy,  Safe,  and  Quick  .  215 

Clinchers — Letter  to  clinch  orders. 

7.  Turning    Advertising    Inquiries  Into 


Orders  219 

8.  Follow-up  Letters  220 

Letter  to  sell  a  fire-extinguisher  sent  with  cata- 
log on  receipt  of  inquiry. 

9.  Second  Follow-up  Letter  224 

Illustrative  letters. 


CONTENTS  vii 

PAGE 

10.  Stationery  and  Printing  for  Circular 

Letters  228 

11.  Premiums  230 

Letter  to  get  a  trial  wholesale  order  on  approval 

— Premium. 

12.  What  Can  and  What  Can  Not  be  Done  by 

Mail  233 

Importance  of  testing  every  letter  or  piece  of 
advertising — Futility  of  the  conventional  follow- 
up — Making  an  argument  in  bits — Seasonal  can- 
vassing. 

PART  III— MERCHANDISING 
Merchandising  243 

A  good  business  in  a  good  location — Classes  of 
businesses — Collections  and  credits — Financing  a 
business — Kecords — The  general  selling-problem 
— Trusting  the  public — Approval — Questions  on 
merchandising. 

PART  IV— ADVERTISING 
I.  The  Business  of  Advertising  ....  263 

Questions  on  the  business  of  advertising. 

II.  Planning  an  Advertising  Campaign    .    .  270 

Questions  on  planning  an  advertising  campaign. 

III.  The  Psychology  and  Art  of  Advertising 

Display  275 

Attention  values — Pleasing  shapes  and  masses — 
Questions  on  the  art  of  advertising — The  prac- 
tical drive — Copy — Producing  action — Questions 
on  the  preparation  of  copy. 
Forty  Illustrations  of  Magazine,  News- 
paper, and  Street-Car  Advertisements  289 
Mediums — Questions  on  mediums— The  cumula- 
tive power  of  advertising. 


viii 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

IV.  Retail  Advertising  330 

The  object  of  retail  advertising — Newspapers 
and  handbills  as  retail  mediums — What  to  ad- 
vertise— The  buyer  and  the  advertisement  writer 
must  work  together — The  technique  of  retail  ad- 
vertising— Questions  on  retail  advertising. 

V.  Direct-by-Mail  Advertising  342 

Lists — Cost — Mailing-pieces  and  enclosures — One 
or  two-cent  postage — which? — Hints  on  booklet- 
making — Proper  style  in  which  to  write  a  book- 
let— The  use  and  abuse  of  catalogs  and  booklets 
— Classified  advertising — Questions  on  direct- 
by-mail  advertising. 

VI.  Keying  and  Testing  Advertising   .    .    .  358 

Testing  retail  advertising — Testing  general  ad- 
vertising— Permanent  advertising  record — Ques- 
tions on  keying  and  testing  advertisements. 

VII.  Printing  369 

Preparing  copy  for  printer  and  reading  proof — 
Questions  on  printing. 

Modern  Type  Faces  383 


PAET  V— PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP 

I.  Personality  393 

The  advantage  of  having  good  clothes — The  ad- 
vantage of  having  good  manners — The  advan- 
tage of  having  a  good  breath — Questions  on 
personality  in  salesmanship. 

II.  Different  Kinds  of  Salesmen  and  Their 


Duties   403 

1.  Retail   403 

2.  Wholesale   406 

3.  Specialty   411 


Questions  on  the  duties  of  different  kinds  of 
salesmen. 


CONTENTS 


ix 


III.  Modern  Sales  Organization  414 

The  sales-manager — The  list  of  prospects — Edu- 
cating the  customer — Managing  salesmen — Ques- 
tions on  modern  sales  organization. 

IV.  The  Principles  of  Salesmanship  .    .    .  424 

The  five  factors — General  preparation  for  sell- 
ings— Steps  in  making  a  sale — Special  prepara- 
tion— Attention — Creating  desire  for  the  thing 
in  general — Developing  interest  in  your  goods — 
Closing  the  sale — Questions  on  the  principles  of 
salesmanship. 

V.  The  Practical  Process  of  Selling  .    .  .436 

Retail  selling — Selling  to  dealers — Selling  spec- 
ialties— The  primary  selling-talk — The  secondary 
selling-talk — The  tertiary  selling-talk — The 
salesman's  personal  check-up. 

Psychological  Selling  Hints — Suggestion  .  449 
The  danger  of  negative  suggestion — Avoid  ex- 
cessive familiarity — Questions  on  the  practical 
process  of  selling. 

Model  Selling  -  Talk  for  House  -  to  -  House 

Canvass  454 

Complete  Canvass  to  Sell  This  Book  .    .  459 

Canvass  for  the  business-manager — Preparation 
— Primary  selling-talk  for  the  business-manager 
— Secondary  selling-talk  for  the  business-mana- 
ger— Tertiary  selling-talk  for  the  business- 
manager — Primary  selling-talk  for  the  employee 
— Secondary  selling-talk  for  the  employee — The 
importance  of  a  logical  chain — The  importance 
of  enthusiasm — The  importance  of  persistence — 
The  danger  of  excessive  persistence — The  secret 
of  success  in    closing"  sales. 


Prefatory 


A  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS 

The  words  science  and  scientific  have  been  used  so 
much  as  advertising  catchwords,  in  loose  and  illegiti- 
mate senses,  that  it  is  well  for  us  to  begin  by  consider- 
ing just  what  is  the  true  scientific  method,  and  how  far 
the  knowledge  of  any  subject  is  or  may  become  a  science. 

The  scientific  method  follows  these  well-defined  steps : 

1.  Hypothesis.  The  scientist  makes  the  best  guess 
that  he  can.  He  is  a  real  student^  an  artist  in  study, 
a  professional  studier,  and  he  sees  something  that  looks 
like  a  great  discovery.  An  hypothesis  is  the  name  for  a 
serious  guess  by  a  brilliant  mind. 

2.  Experiment  and  test.  The  very  essence  of  modern 
science  is  trying  out  that  which  seems  like  a  great  dis- 
covery. "What  seems  is  often  false.  "We  are  deceived 
in  our  very  best  impressions.  We  have  not  looked  at  the 
thing  closely  enough,  we  are  deceived  as  to  its  relative 
importance,  its  proportions,  because  we  are  too  near  to 
it  or  too  far  from  it,  or  there  is  some  practical  defect 
in  its  working  which  we  overlooked  at  first.  The  wiser 
a  man  is,  the  more  likely  he  is  to  know  that  there  are 
many  times  when  he  can  not  avoid  error.  Science  is 
what  we  know,  and  the  only  way  to  know  anything  is 
to  test  it,  to  try  it  here  and  try  it  there.  WTien  its 
appearance  remains  the  same  after  we  have  looked  at 
it  from  many  different  sides,  only  then  do  we  begin  to 
know  that  it  is  as  it  looks. 

3.  Theory.  When  our  hypothesis  has  been  tested 
until  we  find  it  a  very  useful  assumption,  something 
that  helps  us  explain  many  other  things,  but  about  which 

xi 


xii 


PREFATORY 


we  know  there  is  the  possibility  that  we  may  be  making 
a  mistake,  we  say  that  we  have  a  working  theory, 

4.  Law.  When  a  theory  has  been  tested  on  every 
possible  side  on  which  there  can  be  any  doubt,  and  the 
man  with  a  scientific  mind  knows  absolutely  that  there 
is  not  a  single  chance  left  that  he  can  be  wrong,  the 
principle  which  at  first  was  a  guess,  an  hypothesis,  and 
then  by  experiment  and  test  became  a  theory,  at  last, 
on  the  finishing  of  every  possible  experiment,  becomes 
a  law.  Usually,  a  good  many  different  minds  must 
unite  in  the  experiments  which  finally  confirm  what  we 
accept  as  a  scientific  law. 

Only  that  is  a  science  which  is  known  so  thoroughly 
that  careful  thinkers  in  many  different  parts  of  the 
world  agree  on  its  working  theories  and  demonstrated 
laws.  No  one  man,  even  the  wisest  man  in  the  world, 
could  make  a  science.  Any  one  man  who  talks  about 
^'scientizing"  a  subject  simply  does  not  realize  the  dig- 
nity and  thoroughness  of  knowledge  which  go  to  make  up 
our  real  sciences  such  as  chemistry,  physics,  astronomy, 
and  (on  the  side  of  dealing  with  human  nature)  the 
science  of  psychology,  and  the  science  of  sociology  (the 
youngest  of  the  sciences,  what  might  be  called  a  baby 
science).  Philosophy  can  not  be  a  science,  because  it 
deals  with  things  we  know  we  can  not  really  know. 
Much  less  can  religion  be  a  science,  because  it  deals 
very  largely  with  things  beyond  the  range  of  human 
knowledge. 

Moreover,  scientific  names,  scientific  terminology,  are 
no  essential  part  of  a  science.  In  order  to  know  exactly 
what  you  are  talking  about,  it  is  desirable  to  have  fixt 
and  accurate  names.  For  example,  in  botany  it  was 
found  that  common  names  of  plants  were  used  differ- 
ently by  different  people.  One  name  would  be  used  by 
some  people  for  six  or  seven  different  kinds  of  plants. 


A  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS  xiii 


Also  different  languages  such  as  English,  French,  or 
German  had  entirely  different  common  names.  For  an 
Englishman  really  to  know  what  kind  of  flower  or  plant 
a  German  was  talking  about,  it  was  desirable  to  have 
a  name  which  would  be  the  same  in  Germany  and  in 
England.  So  Latin  names  were  agreed  on,  and  the 
different  kinds  of  plants  examined  scientifically  were 
given  names  which  were  accepted  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  The  names,  however,  are  only  a  convenience, 
and  unless  convenience  actually  requires  special  names, 
and  those  names  can  be  accepted  and  used  by  many 
different  authorities  on  that  science,  a  terminology  in- 
vented by  some  one  is  worse  than  a  nuisance. 

Under  the  general  subject  of  Dealing  with  Human 
Nature  we  have  two  young  but  distinct  sciences,  psy- 
chology, the  science  of  the  way  the  mind  acts  on  the 
impressions  it  gets  through  the  five  senses,  and  sociology, 
the  science  of  social  relationships,  or  the  organization 
of  society.  Salesmanship  and  advertising  have  just  as 
much  chance  of  sometime  becoming  sciences  as  sociology. 
The  reason  they  are  not  now  sciences  is  that  no  con- 
siderable number  of  persons  who  have  studied  them  as 
subjects  agree  on  their  fundamental  principles.  They 
are  a  collection  of  hypotheses,  with  a  few  working 
theories,  but  no  laws.  Human  nature  is  a  very  com- 
plicated thing,  so  wholly  dependent  on  changing  con- 
ditions that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  arrive  at  any- 
thing that  will  seem  equally  true  to  all  people  at  all 
times.  Sociology  has  the  advantage  of  the  records  of 
all  history.  The  practise  of  salesmanship  and  adver- 
tising is  so  recent  that  we  do  not  really  have  much  data. 

There  is,  however,  an  art  of  salesmanship,  and  an 
art  of  advertising.  An  art  is  something  which  some 
person  learns  so  that  he  can  do  an  effective  thing  over 
and  over;  but  until  that  art  has  a  scientific  basis,  the 


xiv 


PREFATORY 


person  who  can  do  the  thing  over  and  over  himself  can 
not  easily  teach  it  to  others.  Others  can  learn  it  only 
by  watching  him  and  imitating  him.  The  master  artist 
can  not  explain  just  how  he  does  it,  just  why  he  suc- 
ceeds. He  is  guided  more  by  instinct  than  by  reason. 
All  things  that  are  done  in  the  course  of  human  rela- 
tions must  be  largely  guided  by  instinct,  and  so  always 
are  arts;  but  we  are  very  fortunate  when  an  art  has  a 
scientific  basis.  Dealing  with  Human  Nature  in  Busi- 
ness is  a  broader  subject  than  either  salesmanship  or 
advertising,  and  in  practise  it  includes  a  number  of 
arts.  Because  it  is  broad  it  can  be  reduced  to  a  simple 
basis,  starting  with  some  principles  borrowed  from 
psychology  and  sociology,  and  so  a  foundation  can  be 
laid  not  only  for  advertising  and  salesmanship,  but  also 
for  credits,  for  employment  and  factory-management, 
and  various  other  things  in  business  or  professional  life 
that  do  not  come  under  the  head  of  salesmanship  or 
advertising.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of  these  is 
the  building  up  of  professional  reputation  without 
violating  the  ''ethics''  which  definitely  forbid  the  use 
of  advertising. 

One  more  word  needs  to  be  defined,  and  that  is  the 
word  practical.  Dealing  with  Human  Nature  is  a 
practical  subject,  not  one  of  pure  science.  We  stand  in 
a  certain  position  with  reference  to  life.  There  are 
certain  conditions  all  around  us.  The  problems  before 
us  on  which  our  life  and  pleasure  depend  are  practical 
problems,  and  we  need  to  know  just  those  parts  of 
sciences  which  will  help  us  to  solve  these  practical  prob- 
lems with  which  we  are  confronted.  A  practical  book 
is  one  written  by  a  man  who  really  knows  what  the 
conditions  of  life  are,  what  are  the  problems  that  must 
be  solved,  and  then  selects  such  principles  as  will  help 
to  solve  them.    His  hypotheses  must  be  the  incarnation 


A  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS 


XV 


of  common  sense,  and  he  must  have  had  a  great  deal  of 
experience  of  life  by  which  to  judge. 

As  Dealing  with  Human  Nature  involves  the  prac- 
tical application  of  psychology,  the  science  of  the  way 
the  mind  works,  we  should  here  summarize  its  leading 
principles. 

First,  we  should  realize  that  all  knowledge  is  relative. 
There  is  nothing  absolute.  Ancient  astronomy  assumed 
that  all  the  heavenly  bodies  revolved  around  the  earth, 
and  explained  things  as  best  it  might  on  that  hypo- 
thesis. Now  we  know  that  the  earth  and  planets  revolve 
about  the  sun,  and  on  this  hypothesis  we  explain  things 
more  completely.  The  ancients  assumed  there  were 
four  elements,  earth,  water,  fire,  and  air,  and  on  that 
assumption  explained  things  in  a  practical  way  for 
them.  We  now  assume  eighty-one  elements  such  as 
hydrogen,  oxygen,  copper,  iron,  etc.,  but  already  we 
seem  on  the  verge  of  finding  out  that  these  are  all 
various  forms  of  one  element.  We  assume  that  bodies 
are  made  up  of  molecules,  which  in  turn  are  made  up 
of  atoms  (tho  no  one  has  ever  seen  either  a  molecule 
or  an  atom)  ;  but  philosophy  teaches  that  all  we  know 
of  the  substances  we  call  matter  are  the  sensations  we 
get  in  the  brain  through  various  nerve-channels,  such 
as  color,  shape,  hardness,  etc.  It  is  almost  certain  that 
matter  and  mind  are  not  two  entirely  different  things, 
but  forms  of  the  same  underlying  substance. 
«  We  explain  one  thing  by  comparing  it  with  another, 
or  in  terms  of  another,  and  that  other  by  comparing  it 
with  something  else,  and  so  on,  till  at  last  we  come 
back  to  the  thing  with  which  we  started.  So  our  knowl- 
edge of  existence  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  jelly-bag:  we 
punch  it  here  and  it  bulges  out  there ;  or  we  push  it  in 
over  there  and  it  bulges  out  somewhere  else.  We  ar- 
range all  we  know  on  a  system.    That  works  very  well 


xvi 


PREFATORY 


till  we  come  to  know  a  great  many  other  things  that  our 
system  can  not  explain,  and  then  we  get  another  system. 
Knowledge  is  changing  all  i/he  time,  and  it  must  change. 
What  we  call  truth  to-day  will  not  be  truth  to-morrow. 
That  is  the  way  we  grow  intellectually.  When  we  come 
to  think  that  something  is  absolutely  fixt,  we  have  stopt 
growing  mentally,  we  have  begun  to  die.  When  the 
world  stops  changing  its  knowledge  and  its  explanations 
of  things  it  will  have  begun  to  die. 

Yet,  for  the  time  being,  our  working  theories  are  all 
right,  and  when  we  get  new  ones  all  that  is  true  in  the 
old  will  simply  be  taken  over  by  the  new.  We  may  be 
right  as  far  as  we  go. 

Psychology  teaches  that  all  impressions  in  the  mind 
come  to  it  through  some  one  or  more  of  the  five  senses, 
sight,  hearing,  touch,  taste,  and  smell.  Sensation  starts 
at  the  end  of  a  nerve,  travels  along  that  little  white  cord 
till  it  reaches  the  brain,  where  it  is  registered  or 
written  on  the  brain-substance.  We  get  knowledge  in 
no  other  tvay. 

These  sensations  are  brought  by  the  nerves  to  the 
brain  in  a  stream  of  consciousness.  This  stream  of 
consciousness  starts  at  birth  and  continues  unbroken 
till  death.  In  sleep  or  fainting-fits  or  the  like  it  seems  to 
stop ;  but  when  we  waken  it  goes  on  again. 

This  stream  of  consciousness  belongs  to  me,  the  ego, 
the  individual  spiritual  being,  or  else  it  is  the  me,  tho  it 
seems  as  if  there  were  within  us  a  something  that  knows 
— a  soul  above  the  stream  of  consciousness  that  we  call 
life. 

The  mind  within  us  gives  attention,  voluntary  or  in- 
voluntary, to  the  sensations  in  the  stream  of  conscious- 
ness, and  classifies  and  arranges  them.  We  pick  out  the 
things  that  keep  coming  again  and  again  along  the 
stream.    A  certain  sensation  which  comes  many,  many 


A  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS 


xvii 


times  we  identify  as  white,  and  another  as  black.  A 
certain  quality  we  find  common  to  the  face  of  a  woman, 
to  a  flower,  to  a  cloud,  to  a  building,  and  we  call  it 
beauty.  All  that  we  know  and  think  are  arrangements, 
so  to  speak,  in  the  mind.  Objects  in  this  stream  of 
consciousness  we  call  ideas.  The  act  of  consciously  sep- 
arating and  arranging  them  we  call  thinking. 

Every  sensation  and  every  thought  produces  a  feel- 
ing, an  emotion;  and  every  emotion  leads  to  some 
action.  The  power  of  mind  that  acts  consciously  we 
call  will.  Whether  will  is  free,  or  is  the  inevitable  re- 
sult of  a  chain  of  sensations  and  emotions  which  we  can 
not  control  is  a  disputed  point,  but  every  human  being 
has  a  profound  conviction  that  his  will  is  free. 

The  nervous  system  is  made  up  of  two  divisions,  the 
nerves  that  convey  sensations,  and  the  nerves  that  pro- 
duce action  by  contracting  the  muscles.  These  two  sys- 
tems work  together  more  or  less  automatically.  Cut  off 
the  head  of  a  frog,  and  he  will  still  kick  his  legs  as  if  he 
were  alive,  because  of  the  reflex  action  through  the 
nerve-centers  in  the  spinal  column. 

Instinct  is  a  sort  of  automatic  reflex  through  the 
brain  that  makes  animals  and  men  do  wise  things  with- 
out thinking  at  all.  The  newly  born  calf  has  an  instinct 
to  suck  the  cow's  udder,  and  the  baby  has  an  instinct  to 
suck  the  mother's  breast.  It  lasts  but  for  a  few  days,  for 
if  the  calf  or  the  baby  are  hand-fed  for  a  little  while  it 
is  difficult  to  teach  them  to  suck.  Chickens  after  they 
are  hatched  are  said  to  have  an  instinct  to  follow  any 
moving  object,  a  man  or  an  animal  as  well  as  the  mother 
hen,  and  if  they  are  taught  to  follow  a  man  from  that 
time  they  form  the  habit  of  doing  so.  But  if  they  are 
hooded  for  a  few  days  longer  the  instinct  of  flight,  the 
very  opposite,  develops,  and  when  unhooded  they  try 
their  best  to  fly  away.    Where  instinct  ends  and 


xviii 


PREFATORY 


conscious  reason  begins  it  is  hard  to  say.  A  hen  sits 
from  instinct  the  first  time,  but  the  second  or  third  she 
probably  remembers  somewhat  the  fine  chickens  that 
came  from  her  patient  sitting  before.  A  little  reason 
may  be  mingled  with  her  instinct,  tho  formerly  it  was 
supposed  that  animals  acted  only  from  instinct,  while 
man  acted  from  reason.  We  can  hardly  believe  now 
that  there  is  any  such  sharp  line  drawn  between  them. 

When  the  streams  of  nervous  vibration  have  passed 
repeatedly  they  seem  to  make  an  easy  path  for  them- 
selves, and  these  easy  paths  we  call  habit.  Habit  leads 
us  to  do  things  almost  as  unconsciously  as  when  the  frog 
with  its  head  cut  off  kicks  its  legs  by  reflex  action. 

The  sensations  registered  in  the  brain  also  make  paths 
that  perhaps  actually  exist  in  the  matter  of  the  brain, 
and  at  some  future  time  we  may  start  over  these  paths 
again,  and  so  experience  again  the  sensations  that  w^e 
had  long  before.  When  we  identify  these  with  the  time 
at  which  we  received  them,  we  call  it  memory.  When 
we  do  not  fix  them  to  a  certain  time  and  occasion  in  the 
past,  but  recombine  them  as  if  they  were  fresh  sensa- 
tions poured  into  the  stream  of  consciousness,  we  call 
the  process  the  exercise  of  imagination.  If  we  have 
never  had  the  sensation  of  sound,  as  when  a  man  is  born 
deaf,  we  can  never  imagine  what  sound  might  be  like. 
Imagination  can  build  only  with  that  which  has  come 
into  the  mind. 

With  our  stock  of  conscious  memories,  and  our  stock 
of  unconscious  records  in  the  mind  out  of  which  imagi- 
nation builds,  the  ego,  working  along  the  never-broken 
stream  of  consciousness,  is  able  to  use  its  myriad  stores 
through  association.  There  is,  as  it  were,  a  network  of 
strings,  or  a  network  of  paths,  running  from  one  thing 
to  another,  and  we  find  that  we  want  to  be  following 
these  paths  or  tracing  these  strings  of  association.  We 


A  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS 


xix 


are  so  in  the  habit  of  flying  back  and  forth  over  them 
that  we  do  it  almost  unconsciously.  We  have  only  to 
start  on  a  certain  path,  and  without  any  further  sug- 
gestion we  go  on  to  the  end.  We  hear  a  language 
which  we  do  not  understand  very  well,  and  our  mind 
moves  slowly  and  gropingly:  there  are  poor  paths  of 
association.  But,  when  we  get  the  impressions  through 
the  ear  or  the  eye  of  a  language  we  know  well,  we  need 
only  a  cue  here  and  a  cue  there,  a  faint  sound  or  a 
letter  or  two,  and  we  catch  the  meaning  because  we  are 
following  along  those  paths  of  association,  filling  in  all 
the  blank  spaces  by  the  imagination. 

Thus  we  see  for  our  practical  purposes  that  what  is 
already  in  a  person's  mind  largely  determines  what 
we  get  out  of  it  and  the  ease  with  which  we  can  put 
new  things  in  which  will  be  important  because  they 
call  up  memories  or  start  a  chain  of  imaginations,  and 
so  produce  emotions  which  lead  to  actions.  It  is  ex- 
tremely doubtful  whether  we  can  make  ourselves  act, 
much  less  make  anybody  else  act,  except  as  we  start  the 
trains  of  thought  and  feeling  which  lead  naturally  to 
action.  Making  a  man  act  may  be  saying  something  or 
doing  something  that  makes  him  feel  energetic,  so  that 
to  let  off  his  feeling  of  energy  he  does  what  you  wish; 
or  it  may  be  giving  him  courage,  the  thing  he  lacks  in 
order  to  act.  In  general,  however,  you  get  him  to  act 
by  summoning  up,  even  against  his  will,  an  army  of 
those  impressions  recorded  within  his  brain  which  lead 
him  on  so  irresistibly  that  he  can  not  help  acting. 

Also,  we  should  bear  in  mind  that  we  remember,  and 
others  remember,  chiefly  those  things  that  are  connected 
with  the  systems  or  series  of  connecting  links  which  we 
have  been  building  up  from  infancy.  I  am  interested  in 
baseball,  and  everything  connected  with  baseball  I  re- 
member easily;  you  are  interested  in  dances  and  par- 


XX 


PREFATORY 


ties,  but  not  in  baseball,  so  you  can  remember  nothing 
connected  with  baseball,  but  everything  connected  with 
dances  and  parties.  If  you  learn  how  to  attach  to  base- 
ball the  impression  you  wish  to  make,  you  have  a  key 
for  getting  all  of  the  baseball  *^fans";  and  if  you  know 
how  to  connect  your  appeal  with  business,  you  have  a 
key  to  all  who  are  especially  interested  in  business.  So 
for  you  the  world  is  not  millions  of  individuals,  but  a 
few  hundred  classes. 

Then  to  find  out  how  it  feels  to  be  a  baseball  ^^fan'' 
you  become  one  yourself.  All  that  you  are,  you  under- 
stand in  other  people.  You  study  yourself  day  and 
night,  not  as  an  individual  but  as  one  of  a  class,  and  in 
that  way  you  come  to  know  how  all  the  minds  in  that 
class  work.  Of  course,  there  is  an  infinite  complication 
of  classes,  one  overlapping  the  other.  But  with  these 
clues,  the  maze  does  not  seem  quite  so  bewildering. 

Before  we  leave  this  subject,  however,  let  us  go  back 
to  the  beginning  and  impress  upon  our  minds  that  the 
multitude  of  impressions  in  the  mind  come  through  five 
channels,  the  five  senses,  and  each  one  of  these  is  a 
gateway  through  which  we  should  enter,  through  which 
we  must  enter,  if  we  want  to  get  into  many  different 
minds.  "We  are  likely,  if  we  are  personal  salesmen,  to 
make  most  of  our  appeal  through  the  ear ;  or,  if  we  are 
advertising  men,  through  the  eye.  We  should  form  the 
habit  of  entering  freely  by  all  five  gateways. 

Then  we  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  nothing 
ever  comes  out  of  the  mind  that  has  not  gone  in  through 
one  of  these  gateways,  and  it  behooves  us  to  inform 
ourselves  what  really  has  gone  in  before  we  try  to  get 
out  of  other  people  feelings  and  actions  which  depend 
on  things  that  perhaps  have  never  gone  in  at  all. 

These  are  but  suggestions  of  the  practical  usefulness 
of  psychology. 


PART  I 


HUMAN"  NATUEE— HOW 
HANDLE  IT 


I 

NATIONAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

"We  are  not  studying  human  nature  of  all  times,  places, 
and  conditions,  but  the  particular  human  nature  of 
to-day  with  which  we  must  deal  in  our  business  and 
professional  life.  There  are  certain  broad  national 
characteristics  which  first  of  all  we  may  note  for  our 
convenience. 

Americans  as  a  class  are  very  free,  little  influenced 
by  class  distinctions,  quick  to  respond  to  new  impres- 
sions, acting  as  they  feel.  This  is  particularly  true  of 
the  people  of  the  Middle  West,  who  from  the  business 
point  of  view  constitute  about  one-half  of  the  nation. 
From  them  it  is  easy  to  get  a  hearing  for  a  new  idea,  for 
men  act  promptly  when  convinced,  and  there  is  a  spirit 
of  good-fellowship  in  all  social  and  business  relations. 
But  if  business  is  easy  to  get  for  a  new  thing,  it  is  easy 
to  lose  also.  There  is  little  deep  thinking.  People 
want  quick  returns. 

The  East  is  more  conservative,  more  permanent, 
slower  to  respond,  more  reflective,  with  a  certain  self- 
conscious  and  local  pride  in  this  slightly  greater  depth 
of  mind.  There  is  the  beginning  of  a  class  distinction 
between  those  who  have  money  and  those  who  have  not. 
Those  who  have  money,  tend  to  be  arbitrary,  and  those 
who  have  none  tend  to  be  subservient.  These  are  as  yet 
but  slight  tendencies. 

The  Pacific  Coast  has  a  characteristic  daring  mingled 
with  a  liking  for  the  gay  and  bizarre.  Striking  and 
dashing  appeals  have  a  little  the  better  chance  there. 

3 


4  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  English  have  deeply  marked  class  distinctions, 
with  characteristic  class  manners.  Aristocrats  can  be 
appealed  to  only  in  the  manners  of  aristocrats ;  and  the 
middle  class  has  its  manners,  while  the  working  classes 
have  theirs.  These  habits  of  doing  things  in  certain 
special  ways  are  deeply  ingrained,  and  hence  it  is 
difficult  for  Americans  who  have  not  long  studied  these 
manners  to  do  business  in  England.  American  manners 
are  often  offensive,  especially  to  the  aristocratic  classes, 
and  merit  is  lost  sight  of  because  of  dislike  for  the  man- 
ner of  presenting  it.  In  reality,  England  is  as  much  a 
foreign  country,  requiring  special  study  for  business 
success,  as  France  or  Germany. 

The  English  are  influenced  by  patriotic  reasons  in 
their  business.  They  will  pay  more  for  English  beef 
than  for  foreign,  will  taboo  a  lamp-chimney  marked 
^'made  in  Germany"  even  tho  it  is  better  as  well  as 
cheaper.  Also,  their  idea  of  business  is  largely  the 
old  one  of  warfare.  Every  man  must  protect  himself 
or  take  the  consequences.  Where  an  American  would 
trust  to  the  other  to  do  the  right  thing  afterward,  even 
if  it  is  not  in  the  contract,  the  Englishman  takes  few 
chances  and  asks  few  favors,  depending  on  his  position 
of  advantage  to  compel.  Yankee  sharpers  have  in  times 
past  got  the  advantage  of  him,  and  now  he  is  on  the 
alert  to  get  the  advantage  of  some  other  Yankee,  always 
suspecting  that  the  Yankee  is  planning  to  beat  him  if 
there  is  anything  irregular  about  the  deal  proposed. 
The  Englishman  seldom  lets  a  sense  of  humor  influence 
his  business  judgment,  as  does  the  Irishman,  who  takes 
things  with  a  light  easiness  that  is  similar  to  the  method 
of  America,  where  the  Irish  have  always  been  particu- 
larly successful. 

The  French  have  usually  good  manners,  occasionally 
too  good  to  be  true,  but  cold,  calculating,  thrifty  minds 


NATIONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  5 


watching  for  the  best  of  the  bargain  when  the  time 
comes.  The  people  are  rather  afraid  of  the  official 
powers  that  be,  and  are  not  at  all  enterprising  like  the 
Americans.  They  get  rich  by  saving.  Their  artistic 
sense  is  usually  well  developed.  If  Americans  were  as 
thrifty,  as  saving,  as  the  French,  they  would  soon  have 
a  good  part  of  the  wealth  of  the  world.  These  charac- 
teristics are  well  illustrated  by  their  banking.  They 
have  three  or  four  large  banks,  with  branches  every- 
where, and  they  confine  themselves  to  lending  money 
safely  at  low  interest.  They  have  become  the  bankers 
of  the  world,  along  with  Great  Britain.  Their  money 
is  not  so  much  locked  up  in  their  own  business  enter- 
prises as  safely  loaned  over  the  world,  and  it  is  very  hard 
to  get  them  to  go  into  business  enterprises. 

The  Germans  have  bad  manners  and  an  aggressive 
business  enterprise  found  in  no  other  European  people. 
They  are  patient,  far-sighted,  scientific,  and  exceedingly 
hard  workers.  England,  being  thorough  also,  has  manu- 
factured well-made  articles,  but  Germany  has  been 
shrewd  enough  to  manufacture  cheap  articles,  and  with 
her  cheap  goods,  made  in  scientifically  managed  estab- 
lishments, she  has  got  into  most  of  the  markets  of  the 
world.  Germans  know  so  much,  it  is  hard  to  meet  them 
on  their  own  ground  and  match  them. 

The  Spanish  are  even  more  lacking  in  business  en- 
terprise than  the  French,  but  they  are  naturally  sus- 
picious, and  feel  it  is  better  as  a  regular  thing  to  take 
no  chances  on  doing  business  with  a  stranger  whose 
ways  and  manners  they  do  not  understand.  Yet  they 
are  said  to  be  very  loyal  when  once  they  have  given 
their  confidence.  They  like  the  manners  of  the  grandee, 
and  object  to  being  hustled. 

The  Italians  lack  the  formal  habits  of  the  Spanish, 
and  also  the  excessive  politeness  of  the  French,  but  they 


6  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


have  a  more  kindly  nature  than  either,  without  much 
suspicion.  In  their  general  habits  they  are  more  like 
the  Americans  than  any  other  European  people,  but 
characteristically  passionate  when  suddenly  roused,  and 
more  childlike  in  their  nature.  Sharpers  probably 
would  have  exploited  them,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
as  a  nation  they  are  poor  in  money  and  so  not  con- 
sidered worth  going  after.  But  by  their  kindly  man- 
ners they  attract  Americans,  and  when  they  have  a  fair 
chance  they  prosper. 

The  Japanese  are  a  shrewd,  thrifty,  hardworking 
people.  It  is  perhaps  impossible  for  an  American  to 
understand  the  workings  of  their  oriental  mind;  but 
since  they  model  their  business  on  American  accomplish- 
ments, and  all  the  leading  business  men  in  Japan  read, 
write,  and  speak  English,  the  American  would  best  treat 
the  Japanese  as  he  would  his  own  people. 

So  we  come  back  to  our  own  people.  They  spoil 
more  business  through  lack  of  good  manners  than  in  any 
other  way.  Unlike  the  Germans,  they  are  not  patient 
enough  to  know  all  about  their  markets  before  they  try 
to  sell ;  and,  unlike  the  French,  they  are  not  careful  to 
save  and  take  advantage  of  all  that  comes  their  way. 
Unlike  the  English,  they  are  not  always  persistent  with 
a  bulldog  tenacity.  Their  strongest  characteristic  is 
their  enterprise. 

"We  have  sketched  these  broad  national  characteristics 
to  show  how  people  in  general  may  be  classified. 

Assignment  I 

Sketch  the  characteristics  of  the  three  classes:  1.  City 
people.    2.  Village  people.    3.  Farmers. 


II 


SERVICE  THE  AMERICAN  PRINCIPLE  OF 
BUSINESS 

The  medieval  principle  of  business  is  contained  in  the 
Latin  motto,  caveat  emptor,  let  the  buyer  beware.  Such 
a  novel  as  H.  G.  Wells's  ''Tono  Bungay''  shows  the 
European  view  that  business  is  built  on  fraud,  adver- 
tising is  lies,  and  salesmanship  a  shrewd  hypnotizing  of 
the  victim.  Dignified  and  honest  people  do  not  make 
any  effort  to  get  business,  but  merely  sit  still  and  wait 
for  business  to  come  to  them.  The  '^ethics"  of  law  and 
medicine,  which  originated  in  Europe,  and  have  been 
established  in  the  United  States,  absolutely  prohibit  the 
doctor  and  the  lawyer  from  making  any  direct  effort  to 
get  business.  They  have  developed  effective,  indirect 
methods,  however.  The  few  doctors  that  have  thrown 
ethics  to  the  winds  and  advertised  have  been  largely 
discredited. 

The  American  principle  of  service  takes  exactly  the 
opposite  view,  namely,  that  all  people  are  essentially 
honest,  that  if  you  serve  them  they  will  pay  you,  and 
advertising  and  salesmanship  are  a  system  of  education 
to  familiarize  people  with  the  advantages  of  the  special 
service  that  is  offered.  This  education  is  as  necessary 
and  as  valuable  as  the  education  of  the  public  schools, 
in  which  we  believe  so  strongly.  It  is  one  of  the  ser- 
vices that  is  performed  which  is  really  worth  while,  and, 
tho  entirely  free,  is  ultimately  paid  for  by  the  people 
who  benefit  from  it. 

The  principle  of  service  is  based  on  the  psychological 


8  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


principle  that  like  begets  like,  that  people  feel  as  others 
feel  around  them.  Approach  a  man  with  a  smile,  a 
kind  word,  a  helpful  touch,  and  he  smiles  back,  speaks 
kindly,  and  soon  becomes  your  friend.  Treat  him  as  a 
friend  should,  never  causing  him  to  suspect  or  dislike 
you,  and  he  will  continue  to  be  a  loyal  friend  to  you. 

A  Briton  might  be  stolid,  a  Spaniard  suspicious,  but 
an  American  takes  you  readily  for  what  you  seem  to 
be,  and  is  usually  ready  to  make  a  trade  with  you  if 
you  have  anything  he  wants,  or  he  has  anything  you 
want.  If  neither  has  what  the  other  wants,  the  two  pass 
on  with  a  smile  and  wait  till  another  time  when  both 
shall  be  more  fortunate. 

The  principle  of  unselfish  service  was  preached  very 
effectively  by  Jesus  Christ.  The  principle  of  unselfish 
service  has  been  the  advertising  and  salesmanship  which 
have  carried  the  Christian  religion  far  and  wide;  and 
they  seem  to  have  been  just  as  effective  in  Qiina  or 
India  as  in  America. 

As  illustrations  of  the  application  of  this  principle  in 
business,  we  may  cite  the  following: 

Marshall  Field  started  in  Chicago  the  custom  of  allow- 
ing customers  to  return  almost  any  goods  at  any  time 
and  get  their  money  back.  At  first  they  were  told  they 
could  return  them  if  they  had  any  good  reason  to  do  so. 
Finally  they  were  allowed  to  return  them  to  exchange 
desks,"  where  clerks  took  them  back  without  asking  a 
question,  or  even  casting  an  inquiring  look.  A  few 
precautions  are  taken  to  make  sure  the  goods  are  in  good 
condition,  and  to  avoid  abuses;  but  these  are  very  few. 

In  any  claim  for  damages,  the  word  of  the  customer 
is  usually  taken  as  true,  without  investigation  or  veri- 
fication— just  as  you  would  take  the  word  of  your  mother 
or  brother — and  settlement  made  without  delay  even 
when  the  customer  might  seem  to  be  unreasonable. 


SERVICE  THE  AMERICAN  PRINCIPLE  9 


A  few  years  ago  the  great  mail-order  houses  charged 
15  cents  for  their  catalog  (which  cost  them  50  cents 
or  more  to  print),  to  prevent  people  from  asking  for 
it  for  the  sake  of  mere  curiosity.  This  they  do  no  more, 
assured  that  the  man  who  gets  it  will,  sooner  or  later, 
pay  for  it,  with  very  few  exceptions. 

Formerly  a  big  house  refused  to  bother  with  small 
customers.  They  took  so  much  time  and  attention  that 
there  was  a  loss  on  the  sales  made  to  them.  Now  the 
principle  is  well  established  that  small  buyers  should 
have  exactly  the  same  courtesy  as  the  big,  for  the  small 
will  some  time  become  the  big,  and  many  small  together 
may  be  worth  more  than  all  the  big.  All  the  many  little 
losses  will  in  due  time  be  paid  for  in  full,  under  the  law 
of  compensation,  as  Emerson  states  it  in  his  Essay  on 
Compensation. 

The  most  successful  newspapers  have  adopted  a  policy 
of  advertising  themselves  through  performing  certain 
public  services  from  which  they  could  not  possibly 
benefit  directly.  One  paper  makes  a  crusade  on  fake 
patent-medicine  men,  another  makes  a  crusade  to  raise 
money  for  the  poor  when  in  the  winter  they  are  suffer- 
ing, or  for  flood-sufferers,  or  sufferers  from  famine  in 
China,  or  to  get  good  school  laws  or  good  banking  laws 
passed  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  in  general.  To  be 
successful  these  undertakings  have  had  to  be  free  from 
any  suspicion  of  business  benefit,  except  the  application 
of  the  general  principle  that  he  who  freely  gives  will 
freely  receive. 

But  of  course  we  know  that  there  are  rogues  waiting 
to  steal  our  purse  whenever  they  can  get  a  chance.  The 
prisons  are  full,  the  courts  are  occupied  with  them. 
"Will  not  a  business  man  suffer  sometimes  from  dead- 
beats? 

Yes,  of  course,  he  will  suffer  sometimes  through  those 


10         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


who  take  advantage  of  him,  but  the  number  of  such 
cases  is  so  small  a  percentage  that  it  does  not  count  as 
compared  with  the  great  good  that  comes  from  open 
dealing  with  the  vast  majority.  Even  those  who  do  take 
advantage  usually  are  not  punished,  their  injustice  is 
scarcely  noticed,  and  even  they  will  soon  look  for  a 
chance  to  pay  what  they  owe  in  some  form  or  other. 
A  publisher  once  carefully  took  the  names  of  his  com- 
petitors from  his  mailing-list,  so  they  would  not  get 
early  notice  of  all  the  new  books  he  brought  out  and 
the  advantages  he  claimed  for  them;  but  presently  he 
found  that  his  competitors  were  recommending  his 
goods  when  they  didn't  have  something  of  their  own  in 
direct  competition,  and  that  probably  the  advertise- 
ments and  sample  copies  he  sent  to  these  competitors  of 
his  were  selling  a  comparatively  larger  proportion  of 
goods  than  any  other  advertising  he  did.  So  he  put 
back  on  his  list  the  names  of  all  his  competitors,  and 
helped  them  freely  to  find  out  early  and  fully  all  he 
was  doing.  They  were  thereafter  less  quick  to  bring 
out  a  book  that  cut  into  his,  there  were  no  feelings  of 
animosity,  and  they  preferred  to  say  a  good  word  for 
him  rather  than  a  bad  word. 

The  American  idea  of  service  is  that  we  do  not  have 
to  be  too  careful  about  getting  every  item  into  the  ledger, 
for  there  is  a  sort  of  universal  ledger  which  is  always 
balanced  truly,  and  what  is  given  is  paid  for. 

Assignment  II 

Find  half  a  dozen  illustrations  of  free  business  ser- 
vice other  than  those  mentioned  in  the  text,  and  de- 
scribe them. 


Ill 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  TAKES  YOUR  OWN 
VALUATION  OF  YOURSELF 

Excess  in  any  direction  is  an  evil.  The  man  that  is 
too  good  is  ^  ^  goody-goody/ ^  the  man  that  is  too  gener- 
ous is  a  wastrel  and  obviously  not  to  be  trusted  with 
the  goods  of  other  people.  The  real  kindness  to  others, 
the  best  service,  is  just — treating  others  as  you  would 
that  others  should  treat  you — not  better  nor  worse.  It 
isn't  good  for  you  that  somebody  should  pauperize  you, 
nor  is  it  good  for  others  that  you  should  be  too  loose 
or  free  with  your  services.  The  generosity  and  public 
service  of  business  has  a  strong  backbone,  and  a  sure 
knowledge  that  the  payment  will  come.  It  knows  that 
weakness  toward  others  is  waste,  and  it  avoids  wasting 
anything.  It  serves  itself  just  as  eagerly  as  it  serves 
others.  It  cherishes  its  own  strength  and  capital  that 
it  may  be  able  to  serve  others  more  widely  and  more 
largely.  While  giving  due  attention  to  petty  things, 
it  does  not  waste  itself  on  them,  because  waste  anywhere 
in  the  universe  is  a  crime. 

The  natural  result  of  this  firm  but  high-minded  atti- 
tude— the  attitude  that  believes  all  men  honest  till  they 
are  proved  dishonest — ^has  brought  it  about  that  men  in 
business  and  professional  life  are  largely  taken  at  their 
own  valuation.  They  know  themselves  better  than  any 
one  else.  If  they  are  honest  and  tell  the  truth,  the  best 
place  to  go  for  information  is  to  them. 

There  are  mercantile  agencies  that  make  investiga- 

11 


12         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


tions  of  the  credit  of  business  houses;  but  if  you  are 
asking  credit  from  a  big  business  house,  or  from  a 
bank,  the  credit  manager  or  the  president  of  the  bank 
will  prefer  to  have  you  tell  him  what  you  have  and 
what  you  are  worth,  rather  than  take  any  of  these 
agency  reports.  Some  people  do  lie,  but  they  are  such 
a  comparatively  small  fraction  of  1  per  cent,  that 
on  the  whole  it  is  much  safer  to  take  the  statements  of 
the  man  who  really  does  know,  and  more  than  ninety- 
nine  times  out  of  a  hundred  will  tell  you  honestly,  than 
to  trust  to  outside  advice. 

I  want  to  buy  the  cheapest  groceries  in  Chicago,  and 
I  go  to  the  head  of  a  big  grocery  house  and  tell  him 
what  I  am  looking  for.  I  ask  him  if  he  can  give  me 
what  I  want.  If  he  says  ^^Yes!"  I  believe  him.  He 
is  very  likely  to  say  ^^No!  You  can  depend  on  the 
quality  of  what  you  get  from  us,  but  if  you  want  cheap 
goods  you  must  go  to  so-and-so."  Perhaps  he  will 
point  out  just  how  higher-priced  goods  will  prove  to 
be  the  cheapest  in  the  long  run,  and  so  you  decide  to 
pay  his  higher  price  and  buy  from  him.  But  if  he  had 
not  been  truthful  in  the  beginning,  you  would  not  have 
confidence  in  his  argument. 

Since  the  business  world  takes  a  man  at  his  own 
valuation,  it  is  more  important  that  he  should  know 
that  value  than  any  one  else.  If  on  trial  he  is  proved 
to  have  been  a  bad  judge  of  his  own  value,  it  is  even 
more  against  him  than  if  he  is  dishonest  in  telling  what 
he  knows.  Some  men  do  lie,  and  do  make  money  by 
lying;  but  in  the  long  run  they  are  found  out,  and, 
sooner  or  later,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  they  are 
bitterly  sorry  for  their  untruthfulness.  But  the 
majority  of  men  simply  do  not  know.  Since  they  sus- 
pect they  do  not  know,  they  do  not  state  their  claims 
to  attention  in  any  definite  or  confident  tone.  There- 


YOUR  OWN  VALUATION  OP  YOURSELF  13 


fore  no  one  takes  any  notice  of  them.  In  Europe,  if  a 
man  states  his  own  claims  frankly  and  forcibly,  the 
general  suspicion  that  prevails  that  all  business  is  fraud 
makes  him  more  suspected  than  if  he  kept  quiet.  When 
the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  adopted  as  their  motto, 
Truth,''  and  inaugurated  a  campaign  for  truth  in 
advertising,  they  recognized  clearly  that  the  establish- 
ment of  general  confidence  through  the  elimination  of 
fraud  would  be  the  greatest  asset  general  advertising 
could  have. 

The  kind  of  statement  about  oneself  that  is  wanted  is 
of  facts  and  not  of  opinion.  A  man  is  expected  to  be 
prejudiced  in  his  own  favor,  so  that  his  mere  opinion 
is  not  given  much  weight.  But  when  he  says  he  has 
nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven  dollars  on  deposit  in 
such  and  such  a  bank,  or  has  a  good  debt  that  is  owed 
him  which  will  become  due  at  such  and  such  a  time,  his 
word  is  taken  without  a  question.  The  facts  about 
merchandise,  carefully  stated,  will  usually  be  believed. 
So  in  the  social  community,  the  man  who  says  he  has 
been  to  college,  has  taken  a  medical  degree,  has  traveled 
in  Europe,  and  has  made  a  special  study  of  nose  and 
throat  disease,  is  taken  absolutely  on  his  own  state- 
ment. The  best  statement  about  oneself,  the  least  egotis- 
tic in  sound,  is  a  plain  statement  of  plain  facts,  without 
any  admixture  of  your  own  personal  opinion.  The 
world  wants  to  know  what  you  KNOW  about  yourself, 
not  what  you  think;  but  it  is  at  the  outset  willing  to 
take  your  word  for  what  you  believe  you  know  and  can 
state  in  detail. 

This  willingness  of  the  American  to  take  another  at 
his  word  is  exemplified  in  various  ways.  We  hire  a 
servant-girl  on  what  she  says,  seldom  caring  to  get 
references  or  to  look  her  up,  and  usually  suspecting 
that  written  recommendations  were  given  for  the  pur- 


14         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


pose  of  getting  rid  of  the  servant  without  trouble.  The 
English  never  hire  a  servant  without  a  character" 
from  her  last  mistress ;  and  if  she  has  had  a  quarrel  and 
can  not  get.  a  character,  she  is  often  in  a  bad  way,  even 
when  she  is  really  all  right. 

A  former  advertising  manager  of  Marshall  Field  & 
Co.  as  a  boy  lived  in  Omaha.  He  believed  that  he  could 
serve  Field's  firm  acceptably  and  wrote  a  long  and 
earnest  letter  stating  what  he  thought  he  could  do. 
This  clear  statement  of  his  own  case  caused  the  house 
to  make  a  place  for  him,  tho  none  existed,  and  en- 
couraged him  to  pay  his  expenses  from  Omaha  to 
Chicago  to  take  the  place  that  was  tentatively  offered 
after  two  or  three  letters  had  passed. 

A  young  man  in  Washington  was  a  stenographer, 
but  he  had  studied  advertising  and  wanted  a  position 
in  that  line  of  business.  He  stated  his  case  so  forcibly 
that  he  was  offered  a  position  with  one  of  the  biggest 
advertising  agencies  in  the  country,  and  also  several 
other  positions,  tho  at  a  salary  less  than  he  thought  he 
could  afford  to  go  for.  After  a  while  he  got  the  salary 
he  thought  he  was  worth,  and  he  proved  to  be  worth  it. 
The  clear,  forcible  statement  of  his  own  valuation,  even 
as  to  the  amount  of  his  salary,  won  for  him. 

Assignment  III 

Business  men  value  qualities  of  mind  more  than  they 
do  knowledge  in  young  beginners.  Even  a  high-school 
boy,  utterly  without  experience,  may  know  something 
about  his  powers  of  mind  so  that  he  can  state  them 
clearly  and  forcibly.  He  may  know  that  he  is  par- 
ticularly faithful  and  reliable,  that  he  has  a  gift  for 
figures  or  for  language,  or  that  he  has  unusual  endur- 
ance, or  that  he  can  get  on  so  well  with  people  that  he 


YOUR  OWN  VALUATION  OF  YOURSELF  15 


can  make  them  obey  him.  His  great  fault  in  applying 
for  a  position  is  that  he  does  not  state  these  things  at  all. 

State  your  own  powers  of  mind  briefly,  but  clearly 
and  sincerely.  Let  a  simple  naturalness  overcome  what 
may  seem  an  egotistic  manner. 


IV 


EVERY  MAN  SHOULD  HAVE  HIS 
MONOPOLY 

The  foundation  of  success  in  business,  no  doubt,  is 
being  able  to  perform  some  service  that  nobody  else  can 
perform  in  your  circle.  This  circle  of  yours  may  be 
the  world,  or  it  may  be  your  country,  or  it  may  be 
your  community,  or  it  may  be  the  single  business  house 
in  which  you  are  employed. 

"When  a  person  has  a  monopoly,  something  that 
nobody  else  has,  he  can,  to  a  certain  extent,  make  his 
own  price,  and,  above  all,  he  can  speak  of  himself  with- 
out fear  of  exaggeration:  there  is  nothing  above  him 
by  which  others  can  measure  his  littleness,  with  which 
he  can  be  unfavorably  compared.  If  he  has  this  monop- 
oly, he  has  only  to  make  people  know  it  and  give  their 
reason  time  to  assert  itself,  when  he  will  inevitably  get 
his  full  pay  for  what  he  can  do  that  no  one  else  can. 

There  are  two  ways  of  getting  a  monopoly,  first  by 
setting  oneself  resolutely  toward  learning  something 
that  others  do  not  know,  or  being  able  to  do  something 
that  others  can  not  do.  The  other  way  is  to  look  for 
the  place  where  others  will  be  inferior  to  you.  Both 
methods  must  usually  go  together.  First,  it  is  impor- 
tant to  learn  to  give  some  service  supremely  well ;  then, 
it  is  desirable  to  fSnd  the  place  where  that  service  will 
count  for  most  by  reason  of  the  helping  influences  that 
will  gather  about  it. 

The  man  who  is  at  the  top  usually  makes  money, 
while  the  man  who  is  second  takes  his  leavings.  It 

16 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  MONOPOLY  17 


often  happens,  however,  that  where  one  man  is  succeed- 
ing, a  competitor  may  come  in  and  both  will  succeed 
still  better.  The  community  wants  competitive  service — 
for  the  sake  of  comparison,  we  will  say  two  grocery 
stores.  One  grocery  has  the  best  coffee,  the  other  has 
the  best  bread,  and  so  on,  each  its  specialty  and  monop- 
oly. Or  one  has  the  cheapest  goods  and  the  other  has 
the  best  quality  of  goods.  In  Chicago,  the  department 
store  that  is  the  most  successful  has  the  highest  quality, 
and  the  next  most  successful  store  has  always  the  cheap- 
est goods.  When  people  are  looking  for  the  very  lowest 
prices  they  can  pay  regardless  of  quality,  they  in- 
variably go  to  the  latter  store.  It  has  a  sort  of  monop- 
oly in  that  line.  And  the  other  store  gets  them  when 
they  are  looking  for  the  best  goods.  The  stores  in  be- 
tween which  have  no  such  big  specialty  make  far  less 
money,  but  try  to  have  their  lesser  specialties,  and  no 
store  succeeds  or  even  continues  to  exist  that  does  not 
have  some  specialty,  that  is,  monopoly. 

The  clever  advertising  man,  when  he  comes  into  a 
new  business,  looks  for  the  points  of  monopoly,  the 
points  that  this  business  has  which  no  other  business 
in  the  community  can  lay  claim  to,  and  those  are  the 
points  on  which  his  advertising  hammers. 

It  may  be,  however,  that  in  spite  of  everything  there 
are  those  around  you  who  are  stronger  and  better  than 
you.  In  Boston,  many  people  Have  a  good  education, 
and  a  high  school  education  or  even  a  college  education 
gives  no  monopoly  of  learning.  In  that  case,  such  a 
person  after  having  done  his  best,  should  go  where 
education  is  more  in  demand.  Out  in  North  Dakota, 
perhaps,  he  may  be  the  best-educated  man  in  town. 
Therefore,  as  soon  as  a  person  finds  himself  second,  he 
should  hasten  to  get  away  where  he  will  be  first  again. 
The  earth  is  various  and  large,  and  every  man  can  have 


18         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


his  monopoly  in  his  own  circle,  or  can  seek  a  circle 
where  he  will  be  a  king-pin. 

The  point  of  view  of  monopoly,  looking  down  instead 
of  up,  is  the  only  good  one  for  either  salesmanship  or 
advertising  or  any  kind  of  business  or  professional  pro- 
motion. At  the  same  time  in  our  personal  ideals,  in 
order  to  rise  to  the  point  of  command,  we  must  be  look- 
ing up. 

Assignment  IV 

Make  a  list  of  the  most  successful  business  and  pro- 
fessional men  in  your  town  and  find  out  on  what 
monopoly  each  has  built  his  success. 

Then  make  a  list  of  less  successful  persons  or  busi- 
nesses, and  see  on  what  minor  specialties  they  have 
built  the  success  they  have. 

At  first  the  discovery  of  these  unique  points  may 
seem  difficult,  but  invariably  a  careful  investigation  will 
reveal  them.  The  chances  are  that  many  of  those  suc- 
cessful persons  will  not  be  able  to  tell  what  their  monop- 
oly is;  but  for  all  that,  if  they  have  been  successful, 
it  will  be  found  they  have  it. 


V 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS* 

Having  established  our  point  of  view,  namely,  that 
business  is  rendering  service  which  in  so  far  as  it  is 
successful  has  some  monopoly  which  we  must  discover 
as  our  starting-point,  we  are  ready  to  look  into  the  mind 
of  the  average  person  and  see  how  we  may  appeal  to  it. 

Psychology  teaches  us  that  impressions  are  entering 
the  mind  through  the  channels  of  the  five  senses. 
Poured  continually  into  a  stream  of  consciousness  that 
continues  practically  unbroken  from  birth  to  death, 
they  leave  their  marks  possibly  in  the  very  physical 
texture  of  the  brain  itself.  The  ego  within  is  constantly 
busy  arranging  these  impressions  and  connecting  them 
by  a  network  of  paths  which  we  call  associations. 
When  we  retrace  the  impressions  of  the  past,  by  aid  of 
the  paths  of  association,  identifying  them  as  attached 
to  a  given  time  and  place,  we  exercise  the  power  of 
memory.  "When  we  use  these  impressions,  connected  as 
they  are  by  their  network  of  paths,  so  as  to  make  new 
combinations,  we  exercise  the  power  of  imagination. 
When  impressions  and  associations  are  divided  up  into 
elements,  as  when  we  separate  the  characteristic  of 
beauty  or  any  other  abstract  idea  from  the  complica- 
tion which  goes  to  constitute  objects,  and  then  arrange 
these  abstractions  according  to  fixt  principles,  we  reason. 
When  by  reason  we  come  to  a  fixt  determination  and 
act  accordingly,  we  exercise  the  rational  will.  If  we 
do  the  same  wise  things  by  reason  of  some  impulse  born 
in  us,  without  any  process  of  reasoning,  we  are  said  to 

*See  "Prefatory — A  Scientific  Basis.'* 

19 


20         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


act  by  instinct.  When  we  come  to  wise  conclusions 
without  taking  all  the  steps  of  reason,  the  mind  is  said 
to  act  by  intuition.  After  intuition  has  told  us  what 
to  do  we  may  go  ahead  and  act  according  to  reason; 
but  instinct  differs  from  intuition  in  that  it  produces 
action  directly. 

Here  are  all  the  elements  of  psychology  in  a  nut- 
shell. Now  we  must  see  in  detail  just  how  memory, 
imagination,  and  reason  work.  But  first  let  us  see 
what  the  effect  of  habit  is  on  the  nervous  system,  since  in 
reality  that  is  the  basis  of  the  practical  effectiveness  of 
all  three  of  these  functions. 

I  quote  from  "William  James's  text-book  on  Psy- 
chology: *^An  acquired  habit  is  nothing  but  a  new 
pathway  of  discharge  formed  in  the  brain,  by  which 
certain  incoming  currents  ever  after  tend  to  escape. 
The  moment  one  tries  to  define  what  habit  is,  one  is 
led  to  the  fundamental  properties  of  matter.  The  laws 
of  Nature  are  nothing  but  the  immutable  habits  which 
the  different  elementary  sorts  of  matter  follow  in  their 
actions  and  reactions  upon  each  other.  ...  On  the 
principles  of  the  atomistic  philosophy,  the  habits  of 
an  elementary  particle  of  matter  can  not  change,  be- 
cause the  particle  is  itself  an  unchangeable  thing;  but 
those  of  a  compound  mass  of  matter  can  change,  be- 
cause they  are  in  the  last  instance  due  to  the  structure 
of  the  compound,  and  either  outward  forces  or  inward 
tensions  can,  from  one  hour  to  another,  turn  that 
structure  into  something  different  from  what  it  was. 
That  is,  they  can  do  so  if  the  body  be  plastic  enough  to 
maintain  its  integrity,  and  be  not  disrupted  when  its 
structure  yields.  The  change  of  structure  here  spoken 
of  need  not  involve  the  outward  shape;  it  may  be  in- 
visible and  molecular,  as  when  a  bar  of  iron  becomes 
magnetic  or  crystalline  through  the  action  of  certain 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  21 


causes.  .  .  .  Plasticity,  then,  means  the  possession  of 
a  structure  weak  enough  to  yield  to  an  influence,  but 
strong  enough  not  to  yield  all  at  once.  Habits  in  living 
heings  are  due  to  the  plasticity  of  the  organic  materials 
of  which  their  bodies  are  composed.^' 

M.  Leon  Dumont  writes:  Every  one  knows  how  a 
garment,  after  having  been  worn  a  certain  time,  clings 
to  the  shape  of  the  body  better  than  when  it  was  new ; 
there  has  been  a  change  in  the  tissue,  and  this  change  is 
a  new  habit  of  cohesion.  A  lock  works  better  after 
having  been  used  some  time;  at  the  outset  more  force 
was  required  to  overcome  a  certain  roughness  in  the 
mechanism.  The  overcoming  of  their  resistance  is  a 
phenomenon  of  habituation.  It  costs  less  trouble  to  fold 
a  paper  when  it  has  been  folded  already ;  .  .  .  and  just 
so  in  the  nervous  system  the  impressions  of  outer 
objects  fashion  for  themselves  more  and  more  appro- 
priate paths,  and  these  vital  phenomena  recur  under 
similar  excitements  from  without,  when  they  have  been 
interrupted  a  certain  time.  ...  A  scar  anywhere  is 
more  liable  to  be  abraded,  inflamed,  to  suffer  pain  and 
cold,  than  are  the  neighboring  parts.  A  sprained  ankler, 
a  dislocated  arm,  are  in  danger  of  being  sprained  or 
dislocated  again;  joints  that  have  once  been  attacked 
by  rheumatism  or  gout,  mucous  membranes  that  have 
been  the  seat  of  catarrh,  are  with  each  fresh  recurrence 
more  prone  to  relapse,  until  often  the  morbid  state 
chronically  substitutes  itself  for  the  sound  one.  In  the 
nervous  system,  to  take  what  are  more  obviously  ^habits,' 
the  success  with  w^hich  a  ^weaning'  treatment  can  often 
be  applied  to  the  victims  of  unhealthy  indulgence  of 
passion,  or  of  mere  complaining  or  irascible  disposition, 
shows  us  how  much  the  morbid  manifestations  them- 
selves were  due  to  the  mere  inertia  of  the  nervous  organs, 
when  once  launched  on  a  false  career. 


22         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Nature  has  so  blanketed  and  wrapt  the  brain  about 
that  the  only  impressions  that  can  be  made  upon  it  are 
through  the  blood  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  sensory 
nerve-roots  on  the  other;  and  it  is  to  the  infinitely  at- 
tenuated currents  that  pour  in  through  these  latter 
channels  that  the  hemispherical  cortex  shows  itself  to 
be  so  peculiarly  susceptible.  The  currents,  once  in, 
must  find  a  way  out.  In  getting  out  they  leave  their 
traces  in  the  paths  which  they  make.  The  only  thing 
they  can  do,  in  short,  is  to  deepen  old  paths  or  to  make 
new  ones;  and  the  whole  plasticity  of  the  brain  sums 
itself  up  in  two  words  when  we  call  it  an  organ  in 
which  currents  pouring  into  it  from  the  sense-organs 
make  with  extreme  facility  paths  which  do  not  easily 
disappear.  .  .  . 

Habit  simplifies  our  movements,  makes  them  accu- 
rate, and  diminishes  fatigue.  Man  is  bo'rn  with  a 
tendency  to  do  more  things  than  he  has  ready-made 
arrangements  for  in  his  nerve-centers.  Most  of  the  per- 
formances of  other  animals  are  automatic.  But  in  him 
the  number  of  them  is  so  enormous  that  most  of  them 
must  be  the  fruit  of  painful  study.  If  practise  did  not 
make  perfect,  nor  habit  economize  the  expense  of  ner- 
vous and  muscular  energy,  he  would  be  in  a  sorry 
plight. 

Secondly,  hahit  diminishes  the  conscious  attention 
with  which  our  acts  are  performed.  Habits  depend  on 
sensations  not  attended  to.  In  the  act  of  walking,  even 
when  our  attention  is  entirely  absorbed  elsewhere,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  we  could  preserve  equilibrium  if  no 
sensation  of  our  body's  attitude  were  there,  and  doubt- 
ful whether  we  should  advance  our  leg  if  we  had  no 
sensation  of  its  movement  as  executed.  We  uncon- 
sciously attend  to  these  sensations  through  habit. 

' '  '  Habit  a  second  nature !  Habit  is  ten  times  nature  ! ' 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  23 


the  Duke  of  Wellington  is  said  to  have  exclaimed ;  and 
the  degree  to  which  this  is  true  no  one  can  probably 
appreciate  as  well  as  one  who  is  a  veteran  soldier  him- 
self. 'There  is  a  story/  says  Professor  Huxley,  *  which 
is  credible  enough,  tho  it  may  not  be  true,  of  a  practical 
joker  who,  seeing  a  discharged  veteran  carrying  home 
his  dinner,  suddenly  called  out,  Attention where- 
upon the  man  instantly  brought  his  hands  down,  and 
lost  his  mutton  and  potatoes  in  the  gutter.  The  drill 
had  been  thorough,  and  its  effect  had  become  embodied 
in  the  man's  nervous  structure.' 

''Habit  is  thus  the  enormous  fly-wheel  of  society,  its 
most  precious  conservative  agent." 

Thus  we  see  that  when  we  face  the  public,  we  are 
facing  men  and  women  whose  minds  are  cut  deep  with 
brain-paths  which  it  will  be  extremely  hard  for  us  to 
counteract.  The  wise  thing  is  to  understand  them  and 
use  them.  If  we  do  our  traveling  on  these  paths,  we 
are  likely  to  be  successful;  but  if  we  strike  out  across 
country,  we  are  pretty  certain  soon  to  be  ditched. 

Association.  Memory  and  imagination  both  depend 
very  largely  on  association,  which  is  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  the  natural  connecting  paths  that  happen  to 
exist  between  one  thing  and  another.  Old  paths  that 
have  been  worn  deep  are  easy  to  travel,  new  ones  that 
have  not  been  much  worn  are  more  difficult.  New 
paths  that  are  not  traveled  over  again  are  often  lost 
completely.  Or  if  all  paths  are  about  equally  traveled 
they  are  a  hopeless  network,  a  labyrinth,  in  which  we 
get  lost  almost  instantly.  If  we  have  certain  lines  of 
thought,  great  trunk  lines,  over  which  we  travel  often, 
as  a  certain  business  or  profession,  that  is  a  guide  for 
all  branch  paths,  and  we  can  locate  them  easily  up  or 
down  the  main  traveled  road.  We  lay  out  in  our  minds 
a  sort  of  map  of  the  paths,  indicating  the  big  ones,  the 


24         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


middle  ones,  and  the  small  ones,  and  we  remember  by 
locating  the  new  small  path  on  this  map,  with  reference 
to  this  big  path,  or  that  small  one,  or  this  object  on  the 
path,  or  that  object  on  the  path.  In  the  brain,  objects 
are  called  ideas. 

This  system  of  objects  called  ideas,  and  paths  con- 
necting them,  the  ego  within  ns  arranges  and  classifies 
on  three  different  plans;  first,  according  to  time  and 
place  when  we  received  the  impressions,  that  is  memory ; 
second,  according  to  fixt  principles  which  we  adopt,  to 
make  them  conform  to  which  we  cut  them  up,  divide 
them,  analyze  them:  that  is  reason;  third,  we  take 
them  as  they  are,  pictures  in  the  brain,  and  arrange 
them  according  to  our  feeling,  our  intuitions,  our  in- 
stincts: that  is  imagination.  Then  the  will  acts  on  the 
promptings  of  either  one  of  these,  whichever  is 
strongest. 

Words  and  Pictures  the  Key  to  Other  People's 
Minds.  The  organization  of  modern  society  and 
modern  methods  of  communication  have  made  the  sense 
of  sight  the  most  widely  useful  for  communication,  and 
next  to  that  the  sense  of  sound.  The  senses  of  touch, 
taste,  and  smell,  are  less  directly  useful,  because  we 
have  not  invented  practical  means  for  appealing  to 
them.  The  original  means  of  communication  was  by 
pictures,  and  that  is  still  the  most  widely  useful  and 
effective.  But  reason  has  developed  an  artificial  system 
of  symbols  called  words,  conveyed  equally  well  by  sight 
or  sound.  Sight  is  used  for  long-distance  communica- 
tion, sound  for  short-distance. 

Now,  words  are  not  things,  not  even  things  in  the 
mind  or  ideas,  but  only  symbols  or  tokens  of  things. 
Like  paper  money,  they  are  merely  tokens  that  there  is 
gold  in  a  bank  somewhere  which  can  be  had  for  the 
asking.    If  there  is  no  gold  there,  the  paper  money  is 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  25 


worth  little.  There  may  be  something  else  almost  as 
good  as  gold,  such  as  goods  or  power  to  work,  which 
we  will  accept  as  a  substitute;  but  if  there  is  nothing, 
paper  money  is  nothing  more  than  a  piece  of  paper 
with  a  picture  on  it.  So  words  have  no  value  whatever 
except  as  they  represent  ideas  in  the  mind  of  the 
person  to  whom  you  speak  or  write.  Many  people  think 
that  words  are  worth  what  they  stand  for  in  their  own 
minds.  They  are  not  always  absolutely  sure  that  their 
current  value  is  measured  solely  and  absolutely  by  what 
they  stand  for  in  the  other  man's  mind. 

In  the  case  of  the  words  of  a  foreign  language,  we 
understand  easily  enough  that  the  person  who  does  not 
understand  the  language,  gets  the  words  merely  as  the 
jabbering  of  an  ape.  Such  a  person  can  not  even  tell 
them  apart,  he  can  not  even  hear  them.  They  have  no 
connections  with  any  paths  in  his  mind,  but  come 
straight  across  a  new  country.  It  is  very  slow  and  hard 
going.  The  newcomer  stumbles  now  into  an  unexpected 
hole,  now  over  a  hummock.  There  are  not  even  any 
sound  channels  in  the  auditory  nerve  along  which  the 
unfamiliar  sounds  may  come,  so  that  you  do  not  even 
really  hear  them. 

The  same  is  true  among  the  people  educated  to  one 
language,  but  in  different  ways  and  in  different  degrees. 
A  farm  laborer  knows  nothing  of  the  technical  terms 
of  psychology,  which  produce  just  the  same  sort  of 
effect  on  his  mind  that  Russian  does,  perhaps,  on  yours. 
Words  that  suggest  to  you  all  the  sights  and  sounds  of 
city  life,  may  be  Greek  to  the  country  person  who  has 
never  been  in  the  city.  He  has  no  city  paths  in  his 
brain,  no  system  for  connecting  up  the  few  little  things 
he  thinks  he  can  understand. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  few  practical  principles. 

1.  It  takes  a  long  time  to  make  new  paths  in  people's 


26         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


brains,  and  the  easiest  thing  to  do  is  to  travel  the  old 
ones  that  are  already  there. 

2.  "Words  have  value  only  according  to  the  bank- 
deposit  already  in  the  mind  of  the  person  who  hears 
them  or  sees  them.  They  are  not  things,  they  are  not 
ideas,  but  only  tokens  to  call  up  the  ideas  already  in 
the  other  person's  mind.  A  word,  therefore,  has  a 
different  value  to  every  person  who  hears  it — a  slightly 
different  value. 

3.  Pictures  and  sounds  are  more  original,  more 
primitive  than  words,  and  will  get  into  the  minds  of 
many  more  people  than  words  will.  In  nearly  every 
human  being  there  is  a  nerve  channel  through  the  ear 
for  a  kind  tone  of  voice,  and  a  pretty  well-worn  network 
of  paths  inside  the  brain  along  which  it  may  travel. 
Likewise,  images  of  fields,  sunlight,  men,  and  women  find 
easy  entrance  along  well-worn  paths  in  optic  nerves  of 
most  people. 

Two  Methods  of  Awakening  the  Mind,  Reason  and 
Imagination.  William  James  states  two  essential  ele- 
ments in  reasoning,  the  mode  of  conceiving  the  object 
in  the  first  place,  or  abstracting  a  quality  of  the  object 
and  identifying  it  as  the  object  itself,  and  the  general 
proposition  of  identifying  that  with  something  else,  so 
making  a  logical  step.  Says  he,  **A11  objects  are  well- 
springs  of  properties,  which  are  only  little  by  little 
developed  to  our  knowledge,  and  it  is  truly  said  that  to 
know  one  thing  thoroughly  would  be  to  know  the  uni- 
verse. But  each  relation  forms  one  of  its  attributes, 
one  angle  by  which  some  one  may  conceive  it,  and  while 
so  conceiving  it  may  ignore  the  rest  of  it.  A  man  is 
such  a  complex  fact.  But  out  of  the  complexity,  all 
that  an  army  commissary  selects  as  important  for  his 
purposes  is  his  property  of  eating  so  many  pounds  a 
day ;  the  general,  of  marching  so  many  miles ;  the  chair- 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  27 


tnaker,  of  having  such  a  shape ;  the  orator,  of  responding 
to  such  and  such  feelings ;  the  theater-manager  of  being 
willing  to  pay  just  such  a  price,  and  no  more,  for  an  eve- 
ning's amusement.  Each  of  these  persons  singles  out  the 
particular  side  of  the  entire  man  which  has  a  bearing 
on  his  concerns,  and  not  until  this  side  is  distinctly  and 
separately  conceived  can  the  proper  practical  conclusions 
for  that  reason  be  drawn;  and  when  they  are  drawn 
the  man's  other  attributes  may  be  ignored.  All  ways 
of  conceiving  a  concrete  fact,  if  they  are  true  ways  at 
all,  are  equally  true  ways.  There  is  no  property  abso- 
lutely essential  to  any  one  thing.  .  .  .  The  essence  of  a 
thing  is  that  one  of  its  properties  is  so  important  for 
my  interests  that  in  comparison  with  it  I  may  neglect 
the  rest." 

We  may  suppose  that  we  are  looking  for  a  link  be- 
tween two  objects,  S  and  P.  We  pick  out  of  S  some 
quality  which  for  our  purposes  we  conceive  to  be  the 
essence  of  it,  which  we  call  M,  and  if  we  happen  to  find 
M  in  P  we  have  the  link  we  are  looking  for.  A  sagacious 
mind  is  one  which  discovers  the  right  quality  or  attri- 
bute among  the  many  that  exist,  and  proceeds  to  identify 
it  in  the  other  object.  ^*It  not  only  breaks  up  the  datum 
placed  before  it  and  conceives  it  abstractly — it  must 
conceive  it  rightly,  too ;  and  conceiving  it  rightly  means 
conceiving  it  by  that  one  particular  abstract  character 
which  leads  to  the  one  sort  of  conclusion  which  it  is  the 
reasoner's  temporary  interest  to  attain." 

Of  course,  we  may  hit  by  accident  on  the  same  result, 
as  when  a  cat  happens  to  pull  the  latch  of  the  door ;  but 
if  the  latch  got  out  of  order  the  cat  would  not  be  able 
to  analyze  and  deduce  till  it  found  what  the  matter  was 
and  remedied  it. 

**Thus,  there  are  two  great  points  in  reasoning. 
First,  an  extracted  character  is  taken  as  equivalent  to 


28         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


the  entire  datum  from  which  it  comes ;  and,  second,  the 
character  thus  taken  suggests  a  certain  consequence 
more  obviously  than  it  was  suggested  by  the  total  datum 
as  it  originally  came. 

Suppose  I  say,  when  offered  a  piece  of  cloth,  *I 
won't  buy  that,  it  looks  as  if  it  would  fade,'  meaning 
merely  that  something  about  it  suggests  the  idea  of 
fading  to  my  mind — my  judgment,  tho  possibly  cor- 
rect, is  not  reasoned,  but  purely  empirical ;  but  if  I  can 
say  that  into  the  color  there  enters  a  certain  dye  which 
I  know  to  be  chemically  unstable,  and,  therefore,  the 
color  will  fade,  my  judgment  is  reasoned.  .  .  . 

^^The  extracted  characters  are  more  general  than  the 
concretes,  and  the  connections  they  may  have  are, 
therefore,  more  familiar  to  us,  having  been  more  often 
met  in  our  experience. 

^'Also,  the  extracted  characters  are  so  evident  be- 
cause their  properties  are  so  few,  compared  with  the 
properties  of  the  whole,  from  which  we  derived  them. 

'^To  reason,  then,  we  must  be  able  to  extract  char- 
acters— not  any  characters,  but  the  right  characters  for 
our  conclusion." 

Thus  William  James  explains  what  reasoning  is. 
Obviously,  if  we  are  going  to  get  other  people  to  follow 
our  reasoning,  they  must  have  a  similar  sagacity  in 
extracting  right  qualities  from  concrete  objects  and 
recognizing  them  in  other  objects.  If  their  minds  do 
not  have  paths  along  those  lines  which  are  sufficiently 
deep  and  well  worn,  our  reasoning  will  be  like  Greek 
to  them.  If  they  do  have  sagacity  along  those  lines,  if 
in  their  minds  are  well-worn  paths  of  that  sort,  it  will 
give  them  the  greatest  pleasure  in  the  world  to  listen 
to  our  arguments. 

The  schools  are  largely  engaged  in  training  the  minds 
of  pupils  in  analytic  processes.    Reasoning  is  a  splendid 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  29 


way  of  getting  at  things  that  can  not  be  got  at  in  any 
other  way.  Thus  arguments  make  a  good  form  of  ap- 
peal to  educated  people,  and  in  cases  where  there  is 
no  simpler  or  better  way. 

The  natural  and  universal  method  of  appeal  is 
through  the  imagination.  Sensations  once  experienced 
leave  pictured  impressions  of  themselves  in  the  mind. 
Says  William  James,  ^^No  mental  copy,  however,  can 
arise  in  the  mind,  of  any  kind  of  sensation  which  has 
never  been  directly  excited  from  without.''  This  is 
extremely  important  to  remember  in  our  practical  rela- 
tions with  people  to  whom  we  wish  to  appeal. 

In  some  people  these  pictures  are  distinct,  clear,  and 
complete,  while  in  others  they  are  dim,  blurred,  and 
imperfect.  The  good  visualizer  sees  an  absent  acquain- 
tance as  if  he  were  sitting  or  standing  at  his  side;  the 
poor  visualizer  can  not  describe  even  two  or  three  of  his 
features.  Some  people  have  clear  images  of  sounds, 
while  still  others  have  clear  images  of  motions  or  mus- 
cular sensations. 

'*Our  mental  images  are  aroused  always  by  way  of 
association;  some  previous  idea  or  sensation  must  have 
'suggested'  them.  Association  is  surely  due  to  currents 
from  one  cortical  center  to  another."  These  currents 
from  one  brain-center  to  another  produce  faint  images 
which  are  the  same  as  those  produced  by  nerve-sensation 
currents  direct  from  the  outside.  It  is  thus  that  we  are 
able  to  distinguish  reality  and  fantasy  by  their  faint- 
ness  or  vividness. 

Appeal  by  the  imagination  depends  also  on  another 
element,  besides  the  power  to  reproduce  pictures  in  the 
brain.    That  is  emotion,  or  feeling. 

Every  sensation  coming  as  a  nerve-current  into  the 
brain,  reacts  through  the  muscle-contracting  nerves  to 
produce  action  in  the  body.    In  other  words,  it  rever- 


30         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


berates  through  every  corner  of  the  body.  This  re- 
action may  be:  1.  Expressions  of  emotion.  2.  In- 
stinctive or  impulsive  performances.  3.  Voluntary 
deeds. 

Strong  emotions,  like  fear,  anger,  etc.,  show  them- 
selves plainly  in  the  muscular  actions  of  the  body. 
Milder  emotions  produce  inner  changes,  some  of  which 
may  be  detected  in  the  expression  of  the  face  by  a  shrewd 
observer.  William  James  believes  that  the  nerve-cur- 
rents going  into  the  brain  must  come  out  again,  and  in 
coming  out  they  change  the  body;  then  our  feeling  of 
these  bodily  changes  is  what  we  call  our  emotions. 

Likewise,  the  minor  nerve-currents  in  the  brain  which 
we  call  imagination  must  produce  their  reactions  on  the 
body  in  the  form  of  emotions  or  feelings,  which  are 
closely  connected  with  impulsive  actions.  Or,  once  we 
feel  like  acting,  it  is  easy  to  find  reasons  for  deliberate 
action. 

Appeal  by  way  of  the  imagination,  therefore,  con- 
sists of  calling  up  pictures  in  the  mind,  which,  in  turn, 
produce  feelings  that  lead  to  action.  You  may  con- 
vince a  man's  reason,  and  still  he  may  not  decide  to  act. 
Rouse  his  feelings,  and  he  acts  in  spite  of  himself.  So 
that,  even  after  argument,  an  appeal  to  the  imagination 
is  often  necessary  to  produce  the  feelings  which  will 
cause  the  action. 

Making  people  do  things.  People  do  what  they  feel 
like  doing,  and  they  don't  do  what  they  don't  feel  like 
doing.  We  sometimes  think  we  can  force  their  wills. 
That  is  probably  an  error.  There  is  just  one  way  to 
make  them  act,  namely,  to  start  back  at  the  beginning 
and  set  in  operation  those  things  which  will  produce  in 
their  minds  the  feelings  to  which  their  wills  yield  in 
spite  of  themselves. 

We  hear  about  causing  ''action"  in  making  sales, 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  31 


closing"  the  customer  who  after  convincing  argument 
fails  to  do  what  is  desired,  but  goes  on  arguing  in- 
definitely and  postpones  action.  What  is  meant  in 
reality  is  that  at  the  end  an  appeal  through  the  imagi- 
nation which  produces  the  emotions  which  compel  action 
is  required  to  supplement  a  defective  argumentative 
process.  The  theory  that  a  man  must  act  if  the  right 
emotions  are  aroused  accounts  for  the  inevitable  com- 
pensation which  comes  from  unselfish  public  service. 
Giving  the  compensation  is  a  sort  of  automatic  nervous 
reaction. 

This  is  seen  sometimes  in  making  collections.  An 
irritating  letter  may  arouse  a  little  anger.  Along  with 
that  is  a  sense  of  honor  inherent  in  the  consciousness  of 
owing  the  debt.  These  two  emotions  produce  a  dis- 
agreeable conflict,  to  get  rid  of  which  the  obvious  thing 
is  to  pay  the  debt.  The  process  has  become  almost 
standardized.  Or  a  man  develops  some  intense  feeling 
which  keeps  him  from  paying  his  debt.  An  irritating 
letter  makes  him  angry.  Then  a  very  pleasant  personal 
call  takes  him  unawares  and  relaxes  his  anger,  and 
along  with  the  anger  the  feeling  which  stood  in  the 
way  of  his  paying  his  debt,  and  he  pays  it  in  spite  of 
himself. 

Play  upon  the  feelings  of  others  depends  first  on 
knowing  the  images  or  impressions  in  the  brain,  then 
the  paths  of  association  connecting  them  (in  other 
words,  getting  a  map  of  the  enemy's  country),  next  of 
appealing  primarily  through  the  imagination,  but  always 
bridging  the  gaps  by  reasoning,  and  finally  by  the  clever 
marshaling  of  both  reason  and  imagination  to  produce 
the  feelings  which  make  action  inevitable. 

The  singer  gets  money  from  people  by  appealing  to 
the  ear-imagination,  which  produces  such  pleasurable 
feelings  that  people  become  sound-topers,  so  to  speak. 


32         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


and  give  up  their  money  just  as  readily  as  liquor-topers. 
The  painter  produces  his  emotion  through  the  eye,  the 
novelist  through  the  printed  page,  and  the  business  man 
through  appeal  to  the  cruder  emotions  connected  with 
bodily  comfort,  utility,  etc.  The  processes  used  by  Tet- 
razzini,  Sarah  Bernhardt,  or  Dickens,  are  in  principle 
the  same  as  those  that  must  be  used  by  salesmen  and 
advertisers,  to  dispose  of  the  goods  which  are  even  more 
essential  to  the  successful  living  of  life  than  music, 
drama,  or  fiction.  Whether  the  methods  are  rightly  or 
wrongly  used  depends  on  the  honesty  or  dishonesty  of 
the  users.  Our  original  premise  was  that  honest  service 
is  the  only  thing  that  is  permanently  successful  in  busi- 
ness or  professional  life. 


Questions  on  How  the  Mind  Works 

1.  From  what  point  of  view  do  we  start  in  this 
survey  1 

2.  Describe  in  detail  how  all  impressions  enter  the 
mind. 

3.  What  effect  do  they  have  in  the  mind,  and  in  what 
form  do  they  come  out? 

4.  How  does  William  James  describe  habit? 

5.  How  does  M.  Dumont  describe  habit? 

6.  What  are  brain-paths,  and  how  do  they  help  the 
working  of  the  mind? 

7.  What  practical  effect  does  habit  have  on  our 
actions  ? 

8.  What  effect  does  habit  have  on  attention  to  details  ? 

9.  In  what  story  does  Huxley  illustrate  the  working 
of  habit? 

10.  Illustrate  ''association,"  and  show  how  both 
memory  and  imagination  depend  on  it.  What  is 
memory?    What  is  imagination? 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  33 


11.  What  two  keys  are  there  to  people's  minds?  Il- 
lustrate the  difference  between  the  appeal  of  words  and 
of  pictures.  How  does  a  foreign  language  affect  us  if 
we  are  not  familiar  with  it? 

12.  Summarize  the  three  practical  principles  of  ap- 
pealing to  the  minds  of  others. 

13.  Explain  the  process  of  reasoning. 

14.  What  kinds  of  people  are  susceptible  to  the 
appeal  of  argument  or  reason  ?  Where  is  the  reasoning 
method  most  in  use  ? 

15.  Why  is  appeal  through  the  imagination  the 
natural  and  universal  method  ?  What  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial to  making  that  appeal?  Illustrate  the  imaginative 
method. 

16.  What  is  emotion  or  feeling?  In  what  three  forms 
do  the  nerve-currents  entering  the  brain  react  ? 

17.  How  do  emotions  show  themselves  in  the  body? 
In  what  way  does  the  principle  apply  to  mild  appeal 
through  the  imagination?  Summarize  the  process  of 
appeal  through  the  imagination. 

18.  How  is  it  possible  to  make  people  do  things  ?  Il- 
lustrate the  reaction  in  making  collections  by  irritation. 
How  do  artists  make  people  pay  money?  What  form 
of  appeal  alone  is  permanently  successful  in  business  or 
professional  life? 

Assignment  V 

Education  and  advertising  are  so  nearly  the  same 
thing  that  we  may  study  them  together.  Let  us  test 
the  law  that  nothing  comes  out  of  the  mind  that  hasn't 
first  gone  in.  The  teacher  may  select  two  short  poems, 
like  two  sonnets  by  Wordsworth,  which  he  can  read 
particularly  well,  or  two  pieces  of  prose ;  read  one  aloud 
to  the  class,  and  then  have  members  of  the  class  read  it 
back  to  him.    Then  let  the  class  read  the  other  one 


34         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


first,  while  he  reads  it  last  by  way  of  contrast.  The 
tones  of  expression,  the  interpretation  by  the  voice,  the 
fine  understanding  of  the  shades  of  meaning,  could  not 
be  in  the  minds  of  the  pupils  till  they  had  gone  in  by 
direct  impressions.  To  equalize  the  matter  of  prepara- 
tion, the  pupils  should  carefully  prepare  the  selection 
they  are  to  read  first. 

To  illustrate  the  advantages  of  the  imaginative  ap- 
peal over  the  didactic,  we  will  suppose  there  are  in  the 
class  boys  or  girls  who  know  little  or  nothing  of  base- 
ball, and  others  who  do  know  much  about  it.  Let  one 
who  knows  try  to  explain  it  to  those  who  do  not  know. 
That  will  be  by  the  didactic  method.  Then  make  a 
chart  of  the  diamond  on  a  large  sheet  of  paper  with 
clear,  broad  lines.  Letter  in  the  pitcher,  catcher,  base- 
men, etc.,  so  as  to  mark  their  positions,  including  also 
the  batter.  Then  mutely  illustrate  each  step  of  the  game 
by  going  through  the  motions,  first  of  the  pitcher 
pitching  the  ball,  first  putting  a  finger  on  the  chart 
where  the  pitcher  is,  then  the  catcher  catching  the  ball, 
the  umpire  behind  him  looking  sharp,  and,  finally,  the 
batter  hitting  the  ball,  pointing  to  the  ball  flying  over 
the  field,  and  then  an  outfielder  catching  it;  and  so  on. 
In  each  case  be  sure  first  to  touch  the  name  on  the  chart. 

To  illustrate  the  superiority  of  the  reasoning  method 
over  the  imaginative  on  another  occasion,  try  to  find 
some  imaginative  method  of  making  clear  the  contents 
of  this  book,  which  can  easily  be  explained.  Its  size, 
shape,  color  may  be  shown  or  illustrated,  but  they  are 
not  the  book.  The  contents  of  the  book  might  be  illus- 
trated imaginatively  by  pictures  of  persons  writing 
letters  at  typewriters,  or  an  advertisement-writer  de- 
signing an  advertisement,  or  pictures  of  the  average 
man  and  woman  whose  processes  of  thought  we  are 
trying  to  analyze,    Quite  a  little  can  be  done  in  this 


THE  MIND  AND  HOW  IT  WORKS  35 


way,  but  reasoned  explanation  in  rightly  chosen  words 
is  practically  essential  to  make  the  connection  clear. 

Let  us  turn  over  the  advertising  pages  of  any  maga- 
zine and  pick  out  those  which  make  an  almost  purely 
imaginative  appeal,  as  the  soap  advertisements,  and  then 
those  which,  because  of  the  educated  class  of  people 
for  which  they  are  written,  make  a  didactic  appeal,  as 
Tiffany's  advertisement,  or  those  which,  from  theiT 
very  nature,  seem  obliged  to  use  the  didactic  method  to 
a  large  extent. 


VI 


PRACTICAL  USES  OF  THE  IMAGINATIVE 
METHOD 

To  use  a  word  or  perform  an  act  which  will  start 
those  brain-currents  along  the  paths  of  association 
which  habit  has  formed,  so  that  the  mind  of  the  other 
fellow  will  begin  to  shape  attractive  pictures,  that  is 
what  the  imaginative  method  is  in  practise.  Mr.  Lorin 
F.  Deland,  in  his  little  book,  ^  *  Imagination  in  Busi- 
ness," has  given  us  some  examples  of  it  from  his  own 
experience. 

Two  street  bootblacks  with  kits  over  their  shoulders 
were  crying  for  shines  on  the  two  equally  busy  sides  of 
a  busy  street.  One  made  the  plain,  matter-of-fact  ap- 
peal, Shine  your  boots  here!''  while  the  other  cried, 
'^Get  your  Sunday  shine!"  As  it  was  four  o'clock 
Saturday  afternoon,  the  word  /^Sunday"  started  a 
whole  train  of  reflections  in  the  minds  of  the  passers, 
as  a  result  of  which  that  boy  got  twice  as  much  business 
as  the  first. 

Mr.  Heinemann,  the  London  publisher,  saw  two  ped- 
lers  standing  side  by  side  selling  toy  dolls.  ^^One  of 
them  had  a  queer,  fat-faced  doll,  which  he  was  pushing 
into  the  faces  of  passers-by,  giving  it  the  name  of  a  well- 
known  woman  reformer,  then  prominently  before  the 
public.  His  dolls  were  selling  rapidly,  while  the  man 
beside  him,  who  had  a  really  more  attractive  doll,  was 
doing  comparatively  little  business."  Mr.  Heinemann 
suggested  that  he  hold  two  dolls  in  each  hand,  and  cry 
them  as  *^The  Heavenly  Twins."    That  was  the  title  of 

36 


USES  OF  THE  IMAGINATIVE  METHOD  37 


Sarah  Grand  novel,  which  was  then  all  the  rage  in 
London.  ^'The  ^Heavenly  Twins'  dolls  were  an  instant 
success,  and  within  one  hour  the  vendor  of  the  woman- 
reformer  dolls  gave  up  the  fight,  acknowledging  him- 
self beaten,  and  moved  five  blocks  down  the  street  to 
escape  the  ruinous  competition."  Those  doll-vendors 
succeeded  because  they  supplied  the  mind  as  well  as 
the  hands  with  something  to  play  with.  The  passers 
bought  the  dolls  thinking  of  what  fun  they  would  have 
at  home  calling  them  by  the  names  the  vendors  had 
given  them.  It  also  illustrates  the  folly  of  selling  single 
articles  when  you  can  sell  twins,  which  reduce  stock 
twice  as  fast. 

Mr.  Deland  tells  another  story  of  a  rug-dealer  who 
wanted  to  unload  a  thousand  oriental  rugs  in  a  week. 
He  thought  of  knocking  twelve  or  fifteen  dollars  off  the 
average  price  of  $25  to  $35,  but  instead  he  was  induced 
to  print  an  advertisement  containing  a  sort  of  picture 
of  a  dollar  bill,  which  was  good  on  the  price  of  any 
rug  at  its  face  value  of  one  dollar,  if  used  within  six 
days.  Some  1,600  rugs  were  sold,  at  a  discount  of  only 
$1,600,  coupled  with  an  imaginative  method,  whereas 
if  $12  or  $15  had  been  knocked  off  the  price,  probably 
less  than  two  hundred  rugs  would  have  been  sold.  The 
habitual  currents  of  the  mind  which  play  about  dollar 
bills  so  persistently  in  the  lives  of  most  people  had 
been  set  going  by  the  sight  of  a  crude,  make-believe 
dollar  bill,  the  value  of  which  they  could  see  as  well  as 
think  about  didactically. 

The  same  method  was  used  to  dispose  of  50,000 
pictures  which  had  been  made  to  sell  at  $5,  but  which 
the  house  decided  to  unload  at  $1  each  after  all  their 
advertising  had  failed  to  dispose  of  more  than  700. 
They  thought  of  sending  out  to  dealers  all  over  the 
country  a  circular  announcing  $5  pictures  reduced  to 


38         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


$1,  a  method  that  would  have  told  everybody  at  a  glance, 
"We  are  stuck  and  trying  to  unload  that  which  has 
been  a  failure."  Instead,  they  made  a  handsome  en- 
graved receipt  and  sent  it  to  the  350,000  Grand  Army 
men,  saying  that  a  war  veteran  might  get  a  $5  Civil 
War  picture  for  only  $1,  if  he  would  have  the  certificate 
endorsed  by  the  secretary  of  his  post.  It  was  an  in- 
dividual chance  that  came  only  to  Grand  Army  men; 
but,  of  course,  they  let  in  their  friends,  if  they  didn't 
care  to  buy  the  pictures  themselves,  as  it  was  a  pity 
to  throw  away  a  receipt  for  $4. 

As  Mr.  Deland  remarks,  it  is  not  the  price  that  counts, 
but  the  reason  for  the  price. 

It  is  said  that  Phillips  Brooks  was  giving  some  ser- 
mons in  Faneuil  Hall,  in  Boston,  Sunday  evenings,  to 
*Svaifs  and  strays.''  After  two  or  three  weeks  the 
audience  had  fallen  to  half  a  houseful.  Then  Mr. 
Deland  announced  that  admission  would  be  by  ticket 
only.  "If  we  can't  fill  the  house  half  full  when  ad- 
mission is  free,  how  can  we  possibly  do  it  when  admis- 
sion is  by  ticket  only,"  said  his  associates.  But  the 
next  Sunday  the  hall  was  full,  and  continued  full  for 
the  rest  of  the  season.  It  is  said  Moody  often  resorted 
to  the  method  of  making  admission  by  ticket  only  when 
his  audience  threatened  to  be  small.  People  couldn't 
sacrifice  that  which  they  had  which  somebody  else  didn 't 
have.    What  everybody  could  have,  they  didn't  want. 

Here  is  another  good  story  which  Mr.  Deland  tells. 
An  organ-manufacturing  firm  had  sold  200,000  organs, 
the  largest  number  ever  put  out  by  any  house,  and 
wanted  to  advertise  the  fact.  So  they  had  a  contest 
for  ideas  to  illustrate  "How  Large  is  200,000,"  and 
then  put  the  suggestions  as  pictures  into  a  book  which 
they  offered  to  send  on  receipt  of  a  2c.  stamp.  But  only 
788  books  out  of  the  100,000  printed  were  sold  by  a 


USES  OF  THE  IMAGINATIVE  METHOD  39 


large  and  expensive  advertisement  in  the  Youth's 
Companion.  "What  should  be  done?  Mr.  Deland  pre- 
pared another  and  smaller  advertisement,  placed  a 
simple  rebus  at  the  top  that  any  one  could  solve,  and 
offered  to  give  the  book  to  any  one  who  would  solve 
that  rebus,  and  it  could  not  be  had  on  any  other  terms. 
The  advertisement  was  inserted  once,  and  for  a  time 
nothing  was  heard.      Then   came   a   letter  saying: 

Where  is  this  thing  going  to  end?  We  have  sent  out 
twenty-three  thousand  books  up  to  last  Saturday  night. 
We  have  now  a  force  of  five  women  employed  in  open- 
ing letters  and  mailing  books.  Had  we  not  better  pre- 
pare another  edition?"  So  it  went  on  for  ten  weeks 
more,  finally  breaking  all  known  records  for  the  num- 
ber of  replies  from  any  single  advertisement. 

So  important  do  some  big  business  men  regard  the 
possibility  of  imaginative  appeal  in  a  good  name  that 
they  register  as  a  trade-mark  all  the  good  names  they 
can  possibly  think  of,  not  because  they  can  ever  hope 
to  use  them,  but  to  head  off  their  possible  competitor; 
for  what  can  a  competitor  do  in  selling  a  new  soap  if 
he  can  not  give  it  a  good  name,  one  that  will  touch  the 
imagination  of  the  people.  '^Sunlight"  is  the  name  of 
a  popular  soap  in  England,  and  the  name  Sunlight" 
has  been  registered  at  $50  each  registration  for  every 
possible  household  article,  and  an  American  soap  manu- 
facturer has  registered  every  good  name  for  a  soap  he 
could  find.  It  is  said  that  as  high  as  $50,000  has  been 
spent  by  one  firm  to  register  imaginative  names  just 
to  head  off  competition. 

Finally,  Mr.  Deland  illustrates  what  he  calls  ^in- 
vention" versus  'imagination."  Invention  is  a  clever 
idea.  Imagination  is  an  idea  that  touches  off  the  cur- 
rents running  along  those  brain-paths  which  the  cus- 
toms and  habits  of  people  have  created  in  their  cortical 


40         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


gray  matter.  Congress  shoes,  with  elastic  webbing  at 
the  sides  instead  of  laces  in  front,  had  been  enormously 
sold  because  they  were  guaranteed  to  wear  a  certain 
length  of  time,  and  a  pair  which  failed  to  wear  so  far 
as  the  elastic  was  concerned  might  be  handed  to  an 
express  company  anywhere  and  sent  back  to  the  factory, 
and  the  shoes  would  be  repaired  and  returned  free  of 
all  cost.  Then  a  few  dudes  along  the  Atlantic  coast 
from  New  York  to  Washington,  in  what  the  manufac- 
turers spoke  of  as  ^Hhe  dude  belt,"  began  to  wear  laced 
shoes.  The  fashion  spread,  and  the  manufacturers  of 
congress  shoes  began  a  long,  hard  fight  against  the 
hardest  force  to  fight  that  is  known — fashion.  After 
several  years  of  hard  thinking,  Mr.  Deland  noticed  that 
only  170  passengers  had  been  killed  on  railways  in  an 
entire  year.  While  the  railways  kill  their  employees, 
and  outsiders  who  are  crossing  the  tracks,  they  do  not 
kill  their  passengers.  So  his  idea  was  to  give  an  in- 
surance policy  to  every  wearer  of  congress  shoes  who 
was  killed  on  a  passenger-train.  It  was  an  ingeni- 
ous idea,  but  it  didn't  touch  the  imagination,  and  no 
progress  was  made  against  the  tremendous  force  of 
fashion. 

Assignment  VI 

Turn  over  the  advertising  pages  of  any  modern  na- 
tional magazine  such  as  McClure's  or  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post,  The  Literary  Digest,  Collier's,  or  the 
Ladies^  Home  Journal,  and  make  a  selection  of  the  ad- 
vertisements that  contain  an  imaginative  appeal:  (1) 
those  with  a  simple  picture  appeal,  and  (2)  those  with 
some  statement  or  use  of  words  which  you  think  should 
start  brain-currents  along  the  habit-paths  in  the  minds 
of  average  American  men  and  women.  Make  a  written 
report,  giving  briefly  the  reason  for  each  selection. 


VII 


PRACTICAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  APPEAL 

1.  Like  begets  Like.  Vibrate  a  violin-string,  and  all 
other  surrounding  strings  which  have  a  phonic  relation 
will  spontaneously  vibrate  in  unison.  Like  begets  like. 
This  is  the  foundation  of  the  American  principle  of 
service  in  business.  Serve  others  and  they  will  feel 
inclined  spontaneously  to  serve  you.  Eegard  others  as 
honest,  and  they  will  regard  you  as  honest  and  treat 
you  honestly.    Smile  at  others  and  they  will  smile  back. 

On  the  other  hand,  be  suspicious,  and  others  will 
catch  the  attitude  of  mind  and  be  suspicious  too.  Be 
pessimistic,  and  you  make  those  around  you  pessimistic. 
Try  to  punish  your  enemies  or  your  competitors,  and 
they  will  try  to  punish  you. 

Many  people  do  not  think  that  manners  count  for 
anything  in  business.  They  count  almost  for  more  than 
anything  else.  It  is  largely  by  your  manners  that  the 
feelings  of  people  around  you  are  determined,  and  feel- 
ing has  more  to  do  with  business  than  reason.  It  is 
by  manners  that  the  pleasant  brain-currents  are  set 
moving,  that  imagination  is  touched. 

Professional  men,  above  all,  must  depend  on  the 
pleasant  effects  of  good  manners.  The  dignified  and 
courteous  professional  man,  with  a  kindly  manner  and 
a  helpful  tone  of  voice,  ready  to  encourage  and  inspire 
his  patients  or  his  clients,  is  the  man  people  want. 
They  need  good  advice,  encouragement,  restraint,  calm, 
more  than  they  need  medicine  or  law ;  and  what  is  more, 
they  will  pay  for  these  other  things  in  the  bill  for  legal 

41 


42         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


or  medical  services.  People  do  not  distinguish.  Give 
people  freely  what  they  need,  and  they  will  gladly  pay 
a  high  price  for  the  thing  they  thought  they  needed, 
even  if  given  in  very  small  doses.  People  look  at  the 
large  ledger  of  life,  and  care  more  about  seeing  that 
the  general  balance  is  right  than  the  special  balance. 

Enthusiasm  hegets  enthusiasm.  The  greatest  thing 
in  salesmanship  is  enthusiasm,  since  enthusiasm  begets 
enthusiasm.  The  best  book  salesman  in  the  United 
States  (so  he  was  called  in  his  day)  used  to  say,  ^^AU 
I  do  is  to  go  around  and  enthuse  'em  up."  We  may 
take  exception  to  his  use  of  the  word  enthuse,"  but 
his  philosophy  was  all  right. 

People  lack  the  energy  to  do  things.  Seeing  a  sales- 
man full  of  energy,  they  seem  unable  to  avoid  catching 
some  of  it,  and  the  energetic  feeling  thus  induced  makes 
them  come  to  a  decision  and  place  orders.  They  feel 
as  if  they  must  do  something,  and  the  easiest  thing  to  do 
is  to  write  the  name  on  the  dotted  line. 

People  for  the  most  part  have  faint  likes  and  dislikes, 
faint  perceptions  of  the  wise  thing  to  do,  faint  con- 
victions, faint  ideals,  faint  power  of  will.  Enthusiasm 
is  the  chemical  which  makes  the  faint  clear  and  strong, 
which  brings  out  the  picture,  raises  from  a  sort  of  ideal 
world  into  the  w^orld  of  realities. 

Enthusiasm  is  the  secret  of  leadership.  '^Come  on!" 
says  the  general  at  the  head  of  his  troops ;  *  ^  Come  on ! " 
says  the  football  captain  at  the  head  of  his  men ;  ' '  Come 
on!"  says  the  teacher,  '^and  let  us  study  for  all  we  are 
worth!"  The  example  produces  an  electrical  thrill,  it 
sets  the  brain-currents  moving,  and  nature  within  does 
the  rest. 

Competition  depends  on  the  same  principle,  plus  pride. 
First  we  go  in  because  of  the  infection  of  seeing  others 
do  it.    Then  pride  stirs  us  to  get  into  a  class  by  our- 


PRACTICAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  APPEAL  43 


selves.  Under  the  stimulus  of  competition,  salesmen 
will  do  at  least  half  as  much  again  as  they  could  do 
alone.  The  gang-spirit  possesses  them.  The  desire  to 
be  in  a  class  by  themselves  drives  them  on. 

We  may  compete  with  our  own  past  records,  or  in- 
duce others  to  compete  with  their  own  past  records. 
The  desire  to  beat  somebody  or  something  is  a  clearly 
good  basis  for  sales-appeal. 

Half  a  dozen  doctors  with  their  offices  side  by  side 
in  the  same  building  will  often  each  do  better  than  any 
one  alone.  A  man  going  into  a  new  line  of  business 
often  needs  to  excite  some  competition  before  he  can 
get  his  own  business  moving,  and  the  two  competing 
get  more  than  double  the  business  than  one  could  get. 
This  is  a  fact  often  observed. 

A  calm,  judicial  attitude  begets  a  judicial  attitude. 
We  Americans  forget  that  oftentimes  what  is  needed  for 
our  success  is  an  impartial  attitude  on  the  part  of  those 
to  whom  we  appeal.  This  is  particularly  true  of  all 
lines  of  endeavor  in  which  the  reason  is  an  essential 
element.  Most  people  with  a  purpose  to  accomplish 
argue  all  on  one  side.  That  makes  the  other  fellow 
argue  all  on  the  other  side.  Impartially  state  the  argu- 
ments on  both  sides,  weigh  them  impartially,  and  you 
will  make  the  other  man  inclined  to  do  the  same  thing. 
At  any  rate,  he  is  not  excited  to  concentrate  his  mind 
on  the  arguments  against  you.  School-book  publishers 
praise  the  books  of  their  competitors  instead  of  tearing 
them  to  pieces  as  they  did  in  the  old  days.  Nothing  is 
lost  by  being  fair.  One  perhaps  need  not  go  out  of 
his  way  to  state  all  the  defects  of  his  own  product,  yet 
if  he  represents  that  it  is  flawless,  the  other  fellow  will 
be  sure  to  be  looking  around  to  see  what  is  the  matter 
with  it.  Unless  you  are  frank  and  unprejudiced  you  are 
not  likely  to  find  the  other  man  unprejudiced. 


44         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


If  you  dislike  and  suspect  another  man,  you  may  be 
almost  certain  that  he  thinks  of  you  in  just  the  same 
way.  "What  does  that  fellow  think  of  me?  Does  he 
think  I  am  a  nasty,  sneaking  little  brute,  the  way  I 
think  of  him?  You  may  almost  gamble  your  life  that 
he  does.  You  have  not  mentioned  it  to  any  one,  but 
he  has  felt  it  in  your  atmosphere  as  you  pass.  If  you 
want  to  win  him,  you  must  conquer  your  own  feelings, 
turning  your  attention  more  to  yourself  than  to  him. 
Otherwise  let  him  alone. 

2.  Every  man  wants  a  Monopoly.  We  have  al- 
ready seen  the  advantage  of  doing  business  with  a 
service  which  no  one  else  on  earth  can  render  as  well  as 
we  can.  The  point  of  view  of  having  that  which  is 
unique  gives  us  a  leverage  of  an  almost  mechanical  kind. 
It  also  gives  us  the  attitude  of  mind  of  being  a  king, 
and  it  is  the  province  and  duty  of  a  king  to  conquer. 
We  can  use  superlative  arguments  without  fear  when 
talking  of  a  monopoly.  There  is  no  limit  to  our  enthu- 
siasm when  we  have  a  monopoly. 

Norw,  in  making  our  appeal,  we  can  just  turn  this 
about.  Every  one  else  wants  a  monopoly,  something 
that  nobody  else  can  get.  Here  is  a  second-hand  piano 
that  has  a  little  sweeter  tone  than  any  other  piano  in 
this  town;  that  is  the  piano  I  want.  Here  is  a  dress 
from  Paris  in  a  little  later  fashion  than  any  one  else 
has,  and  my  lady  wants  it  to  the  extent  of  being  able 
to  pay  about  double  price ;  and  when,  six  months  later, 
all  the  shop-girls  on  the  street  are  wearing  the  same 
style,  she  is  equally  anxious  to  discard  what  she  paid 
so  much  for. 

The  precise  value  of  novelty  in  sales-appeal.  The 
desire  of  the  public  to  get  that  which  is  unique,  a 
monopoly,  is  a  compelling  force  toward  novelty,  and  the 
fact  that  making  new  paths  in  the  brain  is  a  very  slow 


PEACTICAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  APPEAL  45 


process  is  the  counterbalancing  conservative  force.  It 
is  a  well-known  fact  of  history  that  world-progress  is 
slow,  tho  steady  under  normal  conditions,  while  ab- 
normal conditions  stop  it  almost  altogether. 

People  have  progressed  up  to  a  certain  point.  They 
want  to  take  the  next  step,  whatever  that  may  be.  Cer- 
tain needs  have  accumulated  of  which  the  public  is 
hardly  conscious.  The  success  of  business  which  con- 
sists in  service  along  those  lines  depends  on  how  much 
unconscious  desire  has  accumulated.  If  it  is  felt  just 
here  and  there  over  the  country  in  the  more  advanced, 
it  may  be  too  expensive  to  find  out  what  persons  are 
ready  for  it,  and  educate  them  to  it.  Careful  testing 
of  the  popular  temper  alone  should  be  the  guide  of 
action.  Inventions  or  ideas  that  are  ahead  of  their 
times  will  inevitably  fail  in  spite  of  the  most  adroit 
salesmanship. 

New  points  of  view  in  regard  to  old  things  furnish 
the  best  promise  of  commercial  success.  Words  and 
phrases  become  worn  out  more  quickly  than  things. 
The  word  success"  may  come  to  be  associated  with  a 
certain  unpractical  sentimental  philosophy,  and  books 
and  courses  of  study  advertised  by  use  of  that  word  may 
fail,  whereas  new  and  specific  developments  of  the  same 
thing,  exprest  from  a  new  point  of  view,  as,  '^How 
to  Do  Business  by  Letter,"  ''How  to  Talk  Well,"  ''How 
to  Deal  with  Human  Nature  in  Business,"  may  attain 
a  very  large  success.  When  the  writer  advertised  a 
"Complete  Course  in  Business  Correspondence,"  the 
inquiries  were  few,  but  when  he  advertised  his  course, 
"How  to  Write  Letters  that  Pull,"  he  met  with  instant 
success. 

The  great  work  of  the  advertising-writer  or  salesman, 
therefore,  is  to  find  new  ways  of  thinking  about  old 
things.    The  inventor  is  trying  to  discover  unconscious 


46         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


needs  which  have  accrued  at  any  given  time,  so  as  to 
offer  new  services  to  the  public;  but  the  writer  is  in 
the  same  way  trying  to  find  new  points  of  view,  new 
angles  of  appeal.  That  requires  just  as  sagacious  and 
inventive  a  mind  as  mechanical  invention  does,  and  the 
cash-value  of  such  discoveries  of  new  points  of  view, 
new  ways  of  expressing  old  ideas,  is  just  as  great  as 
the  cash-value  of  mechanical  inventions,  and  probably 
on  the  average  it  is  greater.  But  there  is  no  artificial 
protection  for  new  points  of  view  as  there  is  for  me- 
chanical inventions,  except  as  they  can  be  coined  into 
a  name  or  phrase.  To  copyright  such  a  name  or  phrase 
does  not  protect  it,  but  actual  successful  use  of  it, 
whether  it  is  registered  as  a  trade-mark  or  not,  does 
create  a  property  in  it  that  the  law  recognizes  and  pro- 
tects— that  is,  the  common  law.  Copyright  registry  as 
a  trade-mark,  which  is  limited  to  definite  new  names  of 
things,  aids  in  the  protection;  but  advertising  catch- 
lines  are  not  usually  protectable  in  this  way.  They 
must  be  held  by  mental  force,  so  to  speak,  that  is,  by 
continued  active  use  in  such  a  way  that  others  can  not 
very  well  afford  to  use  them  because  of  the  confusion 
that  would  surely  be  caused  and  the  danger  that  they 
would  help  you  more  than  they  would  help  themselves. 
The  inborn  need  to  base  a  business  on  monopoly  makes 
people  avoid  even  the  appearance  of  trailing  behind 
some  more  vigorous  thinker. 

Excess  of  novelty  is  doomed  to  failure,  and  equally  so 
is  the  lack  of  it.  Nothing  so  fully  illustrates  the  com- 
mercial value  of  the  golden  mean,  and  knowing  just 
where  the  mind  of  the  average  man  stands,  and  what 
else  is  in  the  field. 

If  you  can  find  a  way  to  give  a  client  or  a  customer 
something  that  no  one  else  has  got,  even  something  that 
only  a  few  others  have  got,  or  something  that  none  of 


PRACTICAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  APPEAL  47 


his  immediate  neighbors  have,  he  will  grab  at  it.  Gangs 
do  the  same  things,  but  they  want  their  individual 
possession.  This  may  be  a  ticket  to  an  entertainment, 
such  as  Mr.  Deland  used  to  fill  Phillips  Brooks's  Sun- 
day evening  service,  or  it  may  be  the  picture  of  a  dollar 
bill  which  really  was  worth  a  dollar  under  certain  con- 
ditions, or  it  may  be  the  prize  given  to  the  person  who 
solves  the  simple  rebus. 

The  successful  salesman  is  always  trying  to  find  some- 
thing special  and  unique  for  his  or  her  customers.  It 
is  related  by  Mr.  Sheldon  that  a  woman  clerk  in  a 
department  store  in  Pittsburgh  made  a  point  of  taking 
the  name  and  address  of  every  customer  in  a  little  book, 
and  dropping  her  a  card  or  telephoning  her  whenever 
any  bargain  was  offered  in  the  store  in  which  she  might 
be  interested.  A  consistent  carrying  out  of  this  plan 
brought  so  much  business  she  was  paid  $3,000  a  year 
salary,  while  clerks  at  her  side  who  were  just  clerks, 
were  getting  but  $3  to  $7  a  week.  This  became  for 
that  clerk  a  matter  not  only  of  bargains,  but  of  exclusive 
bargains — at  least  they  seemed  exclusive  to  her  custom- 
ers. They  recognized  and  paid  her  for  her  services  in 
keeping  them  posted,  for  a  bargain  you  do  not  know 
about  is  no  bargain  at  all. 

Every  customer  wants  to  know  just  how  a  given 
thing  will  apply  to  his  case,  just  how  it  will  work  out 
with  his  conditions.  The  chief  service  of  the  salesman 
is  often  investigating  the  customer's  condition  and  then 
pointing  out  just  how  this  particular  article  will  meet 
his  particular  needs.  We  often  hear  in  business,  ^'My 
business  is  peculiar,  my  case  is  different."  In  the  main 
features  it  is  not  different  from  a  thousand  others;  in 
a  few  special  details,  which  loom  big  in  that  man's 
mind,  it  is  different,  and  the  salesman  must  first  of  all 
find  out  how  to  adjust  the  offering  to  that  man's  tiny 


48         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


differences  which  seem  to  him  so  big  and  important. 
Afterward  he  may  take  up  the  general  arguments, 
which  from  the  outside  seem  so  much  more  important. 
This  is  partly  due  to  the  mechanical  fact  that  what  is 
very  near  to  a  man  looks  big  to  him,  and  what  is  far 
away  looks  small;  but  partly,  also,  it  is  due  to  human 
nature's  natural  love  for  monopoly,  for  something  ex- 
clusive. An  advertising  man  who  says,  ^^I  will  divide 
my  time  between  you  and  four  others,"  will  not  have 
nearly  as  much  attention  as  one  who  says,  '^I  will 
do  all  your  advertising  work  just  as  much  as  if  I  were 
in  your  exclusive  employ ;  but  it  will  cost  you  only  $25 
a  month."  From  the  price,  the  buyer  knows  that  other 
work  must  be  done,  but  it  is  wisdom  on  the  part  of  that 
advertising  man  not  to  mention  the  other  work.  Be- 
cause of  the  low  price  the  customer  will  overlook  the 
unmentioned  fact  that  a  dozen  others  are  getting  the 
same  sort  of  service,  indeed,  inevitably  must  get  it. 

The  same  principle  works  out  in  the  same  way  in 
selling  limited  editions  of  books,  in  exclusive  agencies, 
and  in  all  the  range  of  peculiar  privilege,  including  the 
idea  of  political  pull  which  a  man  believes  is  his  alone 
among  many  who  wish  it. 

3.  The  Habit  of  Obedience  to  Command.  All  per- 
sons as  children  are  trained  in  the  habit  of  obeying 
commands,  and  the  great  majority  of  workers  are  em- 
ployees doing  the  bidding  of  a  very  few  executives. 
Therefore,  all  their  lives  the  majority  of  persons  are 
drilled  in  the  habit  of  obedience  to  command.  In  a 
country  like  Germany,  where  every  able-bodied  man 
must  serve  in  the  army,  the  habit  of  obedience  is  even 
much  stronger  than  it  is  in  this  country.  We  have 
already  noted  the  effect  of  habit  on  the  old  soldier  who 
dropt  his  potatoes  and  mutton  on  the  ground  when 
a  joker  called  out  the  command /'Attention!"    In.  all 


PRACTICAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  APPEAL  49 


games  the  commands  of  the  captain  are  most  important 
in  the  winning  of  victory. 

In  dealing  with  human  nature  in  business,  the  direct 
command  takes  advantage  of  the  habit  of  obedience. 
'^Sign  here!''  spoken  in  a  firm  and  commanding  tone 
makes  the  person  addrest  want  to  sign  because  it  starts 
those  brain-currents  along  the  path  of  that  habit  of 
obedience  which  is  so  deeply  cut  by  lifelong  experience. 

The  return  coupon  with  its  place  to  sign  before  mail- 
ing, or  the  return  postal  card  seems  a  silent  command 
which  is  certainly  powerful,  tho  the  mere  matter  of 
convenience  is  also  an  important  consideration.  The 
quiet,  silent  voice,  saying,  '*Do  it!  Do  it!  Do  it!''  is  far 
better  than  the  loud  and  insistent  voice  which  may 
awaken  the  obstinacy  of  human  nature,  the  disinclina- 
tion to  be  bossed.  People  like  to  follow  the  commands 
of  friends,  of  reason,  of  those  who  seem  to  know  more 
than  they  do.  The  kind  of  command  that  is  effective  is 
the  command  that  is  linked  with  leadership  in  a  common 
cause,  the  command  of  the  football  captain  who  is  in- 
spiring and  commanding  at  the  same  time.  Where  no 
real  authority  can  exist,  stimulation  must  be  greater 
than  command,  but  suddenly,  just  at  the  right  time, 
the  word  of  command  touches  the  habit-center  of 
obedience  in  the  brain  and  brings  results.  It  is  what 
salesman  call  '^closing,"  after  the  customer  has  been 
led  step  by  step  until  only  a  small  step  remains  to  be 
taken.  Suddenly,  as  the  customer  hesitates  at  that  last 
step,  the  salesman  says,  ^^Do  it!"  and  he  does  it  before 
he  has  time  to  reflect;  the  lifelong  habit  of  obedience 
to  command  is  stronger  than  doubting  and  unsatisfied 
reason. 


50         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Assignment  VII 

To  illustrate  the  dictum  that  ''like  begets  like,"  let 
us  interview  ten  persons  in  succession,  we  will  say, 
soliciting  subscriptions  to  a  school  paper,  or  selling 
tickets  for  an  entertainment,  or  working  up  interest  for 
athletic  support,  or  to  volunteer  for  some  special  work 
that  is  to  be  assigned.  In  the  case  of  five  of  them  we 
will  go  straight  and  blunt  to  the  thing  desired;  and  in 
the  case  of  the  other  five  we  will  start  with  a  pleasant 
word  about  something  in  which  the  person  addrest  is 
known  to  be  interested,  on  the  theory  that  taking  an 
interest  in  his  affair  will  induce  him  to  take  an  interest 
in  your  affair.  Make  notes  of  the  result  in  each  of  the 
ten  cases. 

To  illustrate  the  principle  of  the  monopoly,  arrange 
some  interesting  activity  of  the  class,  or  school,  or 
family,  or  business,  in  which  you  wish  to  take  in  ten 
persons.  To  five  of  them  say,  ''We  want  to  get  ten  per- 
sons, of  whom  you  are  to  be  one";  to  the  other  five  say, 
"We  are  going  to  do  so  and  so  and  so,  and  particularly 
want  you  to  be  in  on  it, ' '  saying  nothing  whatever  about 
the  other  nine.  Make  notes  on  each  interview  and  re- 
port results. 

In  the  last  case,  after  your  arguments,  try  to  close 
by  suddenly  saying,  "Come,  put  your  name  down!" 
having  your  subscription  list  all  ready,  or  whatever  it 
may  be,  with  pencil  in  hand.  Make  it  a  quiet,  quick, 
mental  effort  entirely  free  from  all  violence  of  assertion. 

Questions  on  the  Practical  Appeal 

1.  Illustrate  the  principle  "Like  begets  like." 

2.  What  is  the  importance  of  enthusiasm  in  sales- 
manship, and  how  is  it  produced  in  others? 

3.  What  is  the  "gang-spirit,"  and  how  does  it  apply 
in  business? 


PRACTICAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  APPEAL  51 


4.  "What  is  the  effect  of  a  calm,  judicial  attitude, 
and  when  is  that  required? 

5.  How  is  the  principle  of  monopoly  to  be  used  in 
making  a  sales-appeal  1 

6.  How  is  the  liking  for  what  is  unique  counter- 
balanced by  the  force  of  conservatism,  and  how  must 
the  salesman  adjust  the  balance  in  making  a  sales- 
appeal  ? 

7.  Illustrate  the  value  of  new  points  of  view  in  re- 
gard to  old  things.  "What  are  the  limitations  of  nov- 
elty? 

8.  How  can  the  habit  of  obedience  to  command  be 
used  in  making  sales? 

9.  How  do  the  return  coupon  and  return  postal  card 
work  into  this  principle? 


VIII 


PROPORTION  AND  EMPHASIS 

The  mind  of  man  is  practically  capable  of  giving 
attention  to  only  one  thing  at  a  time.  If  I  am  talking 
with  my  wife  about  an  important  matter,  and  you  rush 
up  and  begin  to  tell  me  a  story,  unless  you  secure  my 
attention  I  shall  not  hear  a  word  yon  say  any  more 
than  if  I  were  deaf.  If  I  am  a  business  man  in  an 
office,  and  five  or  six  persons  are  trying  to  speak  to  me 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  I  can  give  attention  to  only 
one,  and  probably  will  turn  to  the  person  who  speaks 
most  loudly  and  insistently  (immediately  becoming  dis- 
gusted by  his  loudness  and  insistence,  and  throwing 
him  out),  or  I  may  give  my  attention  to  a  person  stand- 
ing perfectly  still  with  folded  arms,  attracted  because 
he  is  doing  something  different  from  the  rest. 

Attention  having  been  secured,  it  must  be  held  un- 
broken until  the  arguments  or  appeal  have  had  time  to 
sink  in.  You  may  state  your  case  clearly  and  fully,  yet 
if  not  enough  time  has  passed  for  the  more  or  less  slow- 
working  mind  to  take  in  the  impression,  there  will  be 
only  a  vague  picture  left.  "When  a  camera  is  used  to 
take  a  picture  the  plate  must  be  exposed  just  the  right 
length  of  time.  If  the  time  is  too  short,  there  will  be 
no  picture  at  all,  but  only  a  confused  collection  of 
marks ;  or  if  the  exposure  has  been  too  long,  the  picture 
will  blur  and  run  into  a  confused  mass.  The  mind  of 
another  person  must  be  exposed  to  your  argument  just 
the  right  length  of  time  if  the  best  effect  is  to  be  secured. 

A  short-story  writer  will  present  one  picture  in  his 

52 


PROPORTION  AND  EMPHASIS  53 


imaginative  creation  after  another.  He  may  be  able  to 
say  what  he  has  to  say  in  the  first  ten  lines ;  but  if  not 
enough  time  has  passed  for  that  picture  to  make  its 
photographic  impression  he  keeps  on  using  words,  say- 
ing the  same  thing  over  and  over  in  different  forms  and 
from  different  points  of  view  till  he  knows  he  has  got 
the  right  development,  when  he  passes  on  to  the  next 
imaginative  picture. 

Then  the  salesman,  letter-writer,  or  advertisement- 
writer,  as  well  as  the  public-speaker  or  teacher,  must 
judge  nicely  the  proper  portion  to  give  each  argument 
or  imaginative  appeal.  He  is  painting  a  picture  on  the 
mind  of  another;  the  foreground  must  be  larger,  the 
background  smaller,  to  create  the  illusion  of  perspec- 
tive ;  arms  and  legs  must  be  of  exactly  the  right  size,  the 
small  details  must  be  filled  in  with  just  the  right  full- 
ness or  completeness  so  the  large  or  main  points  will  not 
be  buried  or  thrown  into  eclipse. 

In  speech  we  get  this  proportion  by  emphasis.  Em- 
phasis teaches  us  to  pitch  our  voices  just  so  they  will 
be  heard  comfortably  according  to  the  surroundings, 
according  to  the  natural  hearing  of  the  person  we  ad- 
dress, and  according  to  the  importance  of  our  subject. 
In  writing  we  get  the  same  effect  by  the  vigor  of  our 
language,  by  capital  letters  or  italic,  or  by  putting  a 
thought  into  a  very  short  paragraph. 

Correct  emphasis  depends  on  knowing  the  condition 
and  nature  of  the  mind  of  the  person  addrest.  "When 
we  know  that,  an  instinct  guides  us.  Personal  sales- 
men have  the  great  advantage  of  seeing  before  their 
eyes  the  person  to  whom  they  speak  and  adjusting  their 
emphasis  accordingly,  and  likewise  timing  each  item  of 
their  appeal  correctly,  just  so  as  to  make  the  impression 
clearly  and  then  pass  on.  The  writer  must  go  out  and 
see  typical  human  beings  of  the  kind  he  is  to  write  for, 


54         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


until  in  his  imagination  he  can  see  them,  see  them  so 
vividly  that  he  can  seem  to  feel  just  how  much  to  write 
and  just  how  strongly  to  emphasize  it.  That  is  why  a 
writer  must  be  endowed  with  a  strong  imagination.  He 
must  be  able  actually  to  see  his  customer  sitting  in  the 
chair  beside  him. 

Since  correct  emphasis  in  writing  is  a  more  difficult 
matter,  let  us  consider  that  for  a  few  moments. 

First,  what  is  already  in  the  mind  of  the  person  who 
will  read  this,  what  competitors  are  clamoring  for  his 
attention,  what  general  demands  on  his  thought  are 
likely? 

"To  get  attention,  the  important  thing  is  to  send  the 
appeal  in  some  way  that  is  different  from  the  rest,  not 
enough  different  to  be  freakish,  but  just  enough  to 
create  a  fresh  sensation  in  the  brain. 

Then  what  four  or  five  things  constitute  the  whole 
picture,  and  how  long  can  I  depend  on  holding  this 
particular  reader's  attention?  If  I  know  he  will  read 
only  a  twenty-line  letter,  I  must  proportion  my  argu- 
ment so  I  can  get  it  all  into  twenty  lines.  If  he  will 
read  a  two-page  letter,  why,  I  must  proportion  it  ac- 
cordingly. 

Knowing  that  the  mind  pays  attention  to  only  one 
thing  at  a  time,  I  must  consider  each  point  in  the  pres- 
entation, I  must  drive  it  in  just  hard  enough  so  it  will 
become  clearly  fixt  in  the  length  of  time  at  my  disposal, 
and  then  I  must  pass  on  to  the  next  point,  giving  each 
its  due  proportion.  At  the  end,  I  know  that  I  have  got 
each  essential  point  in  its  proper  size  or  proportion,  I 
have  driven  it  under  the  skin  so  that  it  will  stick,  and 
I  have  not  indulged  in  an  excess  that  will  create  a 
revulsion  against  me. 

Usually  I  give  a  skeleton  argument,  according  to 
reason  and  the  rules  of  logic.    To  save  timQ  I  con- 


PROPORTION  AND  EMPHASIS  55 


stantly  resort  to  the  imaginative  method  of  using  words 
or  pictures  that  will  start  currents  in  the  brain  along 
the  paths  of  habitual  association,  for  they  are  the 
quickest  elements  in  any  appeal.  If  my  time  is  reduced 
to  an  instant,  my  only  chance  lies  in  an  imaginative 
picture  like  those  used  by  Cream  of  Wheat  or  Pears' 
Soap,  and  my  whole  thought  is  to  find  a  picture  that 
will  set  as  many  of  the  brain-currents  to  moving  as  pos- 
sible that  are  good  for  my  business  object.  But  great 
care  must  be  taken  to  see  that  there  are  not  any  cross- 
currents. 

In  order  to  economize  time  so  that  we  may  preserve 
our  proportion,  the  very  name  of  the  thing  should  sug- 
gest its  quality.  ^'How  to  Do  Business  by  Letter''  was 
selected  as  the  name  of  that  book,  because  it  told  so 
clearly  the  nature  of  the  book.  It  was  the  best  adver- 
tising catch-line  that  could  be  devised,  so  that  no  special 
or  additional  one  was  needed.  The  character  of  the 
type  used  should  harmonize  with  the  thought,  and  so 
far  as  possible  the  paper  on  which  it  is  printed,  the 
magazine  with  which  it  is  associated,  etc.,  etc. 

Successful  emphasis  and  proportion  indicate  the  true 
artist,  who  is  master  of  his  craft,  and  knows  the  human 
mind. 

Assignment  VIII 

By  way  of  illustrating  the  principles  of  proportion 
and  emphasis,  let  us  try  the  following  experiments: 

Let  the  teacher  or  a  student  read  the  next  section  in 
an  absolutely  even  tone  of  voice,  without  emphasis,  and 
let  each  member  of  the  class  afterward  write  down 
as  good  an  account  of  what  he  has  heard  as  possible. 

Then  let  the  teacher  or  a  student  read  a  condensed 
and  unemphasized  summary  of  the  points,  and  at  the 


56         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


end  let  the  members  of  the  class  give  an  account  of  what 
they  have  heard. 

Then  let  the  teacher  read  the  entire  section  with 
emphasis  and  a  view  to  making  every  member  of  the 
class  understand  every  point,  and  explain  or  emphasize 
by  special  remarks  any  portions  that  in  his  knowledge 
of  the  class  are  not  likely  to  be  understood.  Let  us 
see  how  much  more  intelligent  an  account  the  members 
of  the  class  can  now  give  of  the  section. 

It  should  be  understood  that  interim  reading  of  the 
section  is  prohibited.  The  first  two  experiments  can  be 
tried  one  day,  the  final  experiment  a  second  day,  and 
on  a  third  day  the  three  sets  of  reports  can  be  read 
together  and  compared.  This  plan  will  help  to  master 
an  important  section,  and  at  the  same  time  illustrate 
the  principles  of  this  one. 


IX 


ANALYZING  A  BUSINESS 

The  advertising  and  selling  side  of  a  business  is  its 
most  vital  part.  No  man  can  make  a  success  of  half  a 
dozen  different  unfamiliar  businesses  at  one  time,  and 
no  student  of  advertising  and  salesmanship  can  make 
a  success  of  his  study  unless  he  specializes  on  ONE 
BUSINESS,  and  tries  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  that. 
Unless  he  does  concentrate  on  some  one  business,  there 
is  no  possible  chance  that  he  will  get  to  the  bottom  of 
anything. 

What  shall  that  one  business  be?  Local  conditions 
and  circumstances  must  determine.  It  might  well  be 
the  school  paper,  the  success  of  which  in  a  business  way 
a  class  might  devote  itself  to.  Or  it  might  be  some 
local  business  such  as  the  shoe  business  in  a  great  shoe- 
town  like  Brockton,  Mass.  With  individual  students  it 
might  be  whatever  business  they  expect  to  enter. 

If  no  special  business  offers,  nothing  could  be  better 
than  a  study  of  the  grocery  business,  for  which  a  full 
series  of  practical  exercises  has  been  worked  out  in 
an  appendix.  Groceries  are  universal,  and  grocery 
stores  can  always  be  found.  A  person's  mother  at  home 
can  answer  most  practical  questions,  and  in  the  mail- 
order grocery  catalogs  a  written  text-book  on  the  grocery 
business  is  within  the  reach  of  all. 

However,  in  a  class  it  would  be  well,  after  the  pre- 
liminary study  of  human  nature  that  has  been  made 
up  to  this  point,  to  take  a  vote  on  the  business  to  be 

57 


58         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


analyzed,  and  having  decided  upon  it,  to  follow  it 
through  to  the  end  without  deviation. 

If  possible,  it  should  be  a  business  in  which  customers 
can  be  called  on  personally  for  oral  sales  practise. 
More  distant  customers  should  be  appealed  to  by  letter 
along  the  same  lines  as  the  oral  appeal  is  made.  Adver- 
tising, either  by  newspaper  or  handbills  distributed  from 
house  to  house,  should  be  called  for  in  the  nature  of  the 
business  if  all-round  practise  is  to  be  afforded. 

Running  a  small  newspaper  of  any  kind  affords  ideal 
practise.  The  readers  may  be  interviewed  with  the  idea 
of  finding  out  what  service  the  newspapers  can  render 
them.  Then  the  editorial  side  should  proceed  to  render 
that  service.  On  the  basis  of  that  service  an  appeal 
should  be  made  in  oral  salesmanship  for  subscriptions, 
and  also  for  advertising  in  its  columns.  When  that 
advertising  is  secured,  the  department  should  study  the 
businesses  of  the  advertisers  so  as  to  teach  them  to 
shape  their  advertising  so  it  will  bring  returns  and 
make  them  willing  to  continue.  Time  may  prevent 
much  personal  sales-soliciting  for  subscriptions,  but 
what  can  not  be  done  personally  can  be  done  by  letter, 
and  the  sales-talk  will  furnish  precisely  the  best  mate- 
rial for  the  letter. 

First,  oral  sales-talk,  then  written  sales-talk,  these  two 
alternating  more  or  less  throughout  the  work,  is  the 
right  combination.  It  is  impossible  to  know  what 
people  want,  and  how  their  minds  act,  without  actually 
going  to  see  them  and  talking  with  them.  Only  when 
this  information  has  been  received,  can  successful  sales- 
letters  be  written.  Other  letters  should  usually  be 
answers  to  correspondence  received.  The  style  of 
letter-writing  is  the  conversational  style,  and  going  out 
and  talking  is  the  very  best  way  in  which  to  learn  what 
conversational  style  is. 


ANALYZING  A  BUSINESS 


59 


Here  is  the  system  of  analysis  for  any  business,  and 
the  writer  has  used  it  with  success  in  the  study  of 
several  hundred.  Sometimes  one  point  is  of  more  im- 
portance than  another,  or  is  of  no  importance  at  all; 
but  allowances  must  be  made  in  a  common-sense  way. 
The  study  of  competition  gives  a  broad  outlook  and 
something  for  comparison.  In  the  case  of  a  patented 
invention  or  a  copyrighted  book,  there  is  the  indirect 
competition  of  all  other  devices  and  all  other  books. 
Modern  books  must  compete  with  all  the  classics.  All 
things  that  are  not  indispensable  compete  with  each 
other  for  a  place  in  the  life  and  mind  of  individuals,  for 
one  person  can  make  use  of  only  a  very  few  of  all  the 
good  things  that  may  be  afforded.  Sheer  lack  of  brain- 
power to  think  of  the  thing  may  prevent  it  from  getting 
even  first  attention.  The  important  thing  is  to  get  a 
true  conception  of  the  relation  of  the  business  to  the 
actual  world.  Only  when  such  a  true  conception  has 
been  acquired  is  there  any  chance  for  practical  grasp 
of  the  vital  problems. 

The  advertising  outlook  is  so  much  broader  than  the 
personal  salesmanship  outlook  that  in  this  consideration 
we  should  be  guided  by  that.  We  first  start  with  the 
broadest  view,  and  gradually  narrow  down  to  the 
details  that  intensive  study  makes  interesting.  Adver- 
tising skims  the  field,  sales  letters  begin  to  work  it 
slightly,  while  personal  salesmanship  works  it  in  the 
most  intensive  way  that  is  possible.  Which  is  in 
practise  most  important  must  be  judged  individually 
in  each  case.  But  in  our  study  we  start  with  the  broad 
outlook  and  narrow  down  to  the  details  when  we  have 
really  grasped  the  relation  of  the  business  to  the 
outside  world. 


60         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


System  of  Analysis 

1.  What  is  your  competition?  I  would  not  refer 
directly  to  your  competitors  in  any  sales-appeal,  but  I 
must  address  a  customer  in  whose  mind  are  the  argu- 
ments of  your  competitors.  You  must  know  what  those 
arguments  are,  and  go  about  saying  that  which  will 
offset  or  counterbalance  them  in  the  mind  of  the  cus- 
tomer. If  you  have  to  compete  with  lower  prices,  it  is 
necessary  to  talk  frankly  on  the  subject  of  prices  and 
point  out  in  a  common-sense  way  that  your  customer 
can't  afford  to  take  that  which  costs  less  and  is  cor- 
respondingly lower  in  quality,  and  why  or  how  he  will 
make  more  money  in  the  end  by  paying  a  little  more 
and  getting  something  that  is  right. 

2.  Then  you  should  consider  what  you  have  that 
nobody  else  in  your  territory  has.  You  may  say, 
Nothing.  Unless  you  have  something  that  your  cus- 
tomer can't  get  as  conveniently  from  anybody  else,  you 
have  no  basis  to  ask  for  more  than  your  natural  share 
of  business.  You  may  give  better  service,  you  may 
even  give  only  a  pleasanter  manner  and  fairer  treat- 
ment. Advertising,  which  keeps  the  customer  con- 
stantly informed,  is  a  service.  You  must  find  out  what 
it  is  that  makes  one  of  your  good  customers  give  you 
his  business  in  preference  to  giving  it  to  the  other  fellow 
— ^not  what  you  think  ought  to  make  him,  but  what  you 
know  from  actual  investigation  does  make  him. 

The  thing  you  have  which  nobody  else  really  has 
(whether  anybody  else  can  get  it  or  not  is  another 
matter)  is  what  really  makes  a  man  buy  from  you,  and 
which  you  ought  to  drive  home  hardest  of  all  in  your 
sales-appeal. 

3.  Talk  is  not  enough,  however,  to  get  orders.  Argu- 
ment must  be  supplemented  by  proof.    You  must  con- 


ANALYZING  A  BUSINESS  61 


sider  how  to  prove  your  claims,  and  if  you  can  make 
your  claims  in  the  testimonial  words  of  other  people, 
even  if  you  can't  quote  their  names,  you  have  gained 
a  splendid  point. 

A  bunch  of  conventional  testimonials  in  small  type  is 
worth  little,  even  if  you  can  get  them  and  use  them  at 
all.  Get  a  testimonial  that  is  really  a  splendid  record 
of  facts,  and  play  it  up  in  good  type  with  a  clear  black- 
letter  heading.  Or  reproduce  sales-orders,  or  give 
records  of  sales,  or  ANY  FACTS  THAT  WILL  TEND 
TO  PEOVE  YOUE  CLAIMS.  Eecords  of  facts  that 
will  pass  in  a  law  court  are  what  you  want,  not  praise 
or  any  form  of  '^hot  air,"  either  of  your  own  or  of 
anybody  else. 

4.  Ask  a  man  to  do  something  easy  that  he  can 
reasonably  do,  and  make  it  as  easy  for  him  to  do  it  as 
you  can.  A  return  post-card  carrying  a  trial  order  or 
a  bit  of  information  you  ought  to  have  is  a  good  thing, 
and  you  should  have  a  printed  post-card  form  to  use 
as  often  as  possible  with  your  sales  letters.  Don't  for- 
get to  be  VEEY  CLEAE  AND  SPECIFIC  as  to  what 
you  want  done,  and  provide  a  convenient  way.  Don't 
ask  a  large  decision  when  a  series  of  small  decisions  can 
be  substituted,  and  don't  ask  a  man  to  commit  himself 
beyond  recall  when  you  know  that  what  he  gets  on 
approval  he  will  want  to  keep  and  pay  for. 

5.  Getting  your  facts  right  is  much  more  important 
than  the  wording  of  your  sales-talk,  or  letter,  or  circular, 
or  advertisement,  and  if  you  haven't  the  preceding  four 
points,  it  doesn't  matter  much  how  well  you  word  your 
appeal. 

But  if  you  have  the  right  basis,  consider  the  follow- 
ing points  in  connection  with  the  wording: 

(a)  Have  you  covered,  even  in  a  brief  letter,  every 
point  with  absolute  clearness,  just  as  you  would  explain 


62         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


to  a  child?  It  is  a  mistake  to  assume  that  every  busi- 
ness man  knows  this,  that,  or  the  other,  and  that  it  would 
be  foolish  to  refer  to  such  points.  When  a  man  is 
reading  hastily  he  wants  everything  before  him  or  else 
he  is  likely  to  overlook  something  because  it  is  not  clear 
enough  for  instant  perception.  Don't  compel  him  to 
figure  out  what  is  wanted.    Let  him  see  at  a  glance. 

It  is  useless  to  write  a  letter  so  short  that  it  doesn't 
tell  your  story.  You  can  always  emphasize  your  strong 
points  in  the  letter  and  tell  the  complete  story  in  an 
attached  printed  circular.  In  any  case,  the  story  must 
be  told  completely  enough  to  produce  conviction. 

(6)  Do  you  present  your  points  in  the  correct  order 
of  sales-appeal  ?    Namely : 

Creating  desire  in  general  for  the  service  you  are 
prepared  to  give ; 

Showing  how  your  plan  works,  so  that  people  can 
depend  on  their  own  common-sense  judgment  as  to  the 
likelihood  that  you  are  right; 

Backing  up  your  statement  by  proofs; 

Throwing  a  personal  tone  into  your  appeal  so  that 
a  customer  will  feel  like  doing  what  you  ask; 

Ending  with  a  quick,  safe,  and  easy  method  of  com- 
plying with  your  wishes.  In  making  a  sale,  when  you 
know  you  can't  hold  him  in  court  and  do  not  wish  to, 
you  may  even  sign  a  man's  name  for  him,  printing  it  if 
you  please  so  there  will  be  no  suggestion  of  imitation. 

(c)  Do  you  strongly,  tho  briefly,  emphasize  FACTS 
that  will  catch  attention  at  the  outset  and  fix  it;  or  in 
a  letter  do  you  emphasize  mere  words  which  will  have 
no  meaning  unless  your  letter  is  read  through  ?  Capitals 
and  the  underscore  should  be  used  to  make  three  or 
four  prominent  facts  stand  out  so  they  will  catch  atten- 
tion at  the  very  first  glance.    They  take  the  place  of 


ANALYZING  A  BUSINESS  63 


black-letter  heads  in  a  circular,  not  emphasized  words 
in  conversation. 

(d)  Are  your  strongest  points  put  in  very  short 
paragraphs  (of  two  or  three  lines  each)  ? 

(e)  Is  your  talk  or  letter  or  circular  of  the  precise 
length  that  the  particular  class  of  people  you  are  ad- 
dressing would  like — short  and  crisp  for  business  men, 
longer  and  more  detailed  for  the  slower-minded?  In 
any  case,  have  you  told  your  whole  story  with  proper 
emphasis  ? 

(/)  Is  your  appeal,  whether  oral  or  written,  enthu- 
siastic enough  ?  Extreme  energy  of  expression  is  neces- 
sary to  make  a  man  feel  like  ordering  in  most  cases. 
Seldom  does  a  tame  letter  or  a  tame  talk  do  much  good. 

(g)  The  man  who  has  developed  a  business  part  way 
to  complete  success  knows  more  about  it  than  any  other 
human  being  on  earth,  and  he  is  the  one  who  knows 
most  about  the  merits  of  his  goods,  his  competition,  and 
his  customers.  The  outsider  who  would  succeed  must 
cling  very  closely  to  the  man  who  really  knows  the 
business ;  he  must  be  merely  a  mouthpiece.  Then  when 
he  has  perfected  his  canvass  or  written  his  letter,  he 
should  be  very  sensitive  in  observing  whether  it  seems 
just  right  to  this  man  who  knows  most  about  the  busi- 
ness. The  points  criticized  by  that  man  may  not  be 
the  right  ones,  but  his  uneasiness  is  pretty  sure  to  indi- 
cate that  something  is  wrong  which  ought  to  be  righted. 


PAET  II 
COERESPONDENCE 


Introductory 


THE  FORM  OF  THE  LETTER 

"When  a  gentleman  who  is  well-drest,  neat,  and  in- 
telligent-looking steps  into  an  office,  he  is  likely  at  once 
to  be  accorded  the  attention  a  gentleman  should  have, 
and  it  is  favorable  attention.  If  his  trousers  bag,  his 
collar  is  dirty,  or  his  hair  uncut,  he  also  attracts  atten- 
tion, but  it  is  unfavorable  attention,  even  suspicion  and 
a  feeling  of  contempt.  The  common  herd  that  are 
neither  good  nor  bad  get  little  attention  of  any  kind. 

The  form  of  a  letter  makes  almost  exactly  the  same 
impression.  It  is  a  matter  of  art  whether  it  has  good 
margins,  a  proper  proportionate  drop  from  the  top,  and 
even  arrangement  of  paragraphs,  salutation,  etc.,  and  is 
correct  in  every  little  detail  of  punctuation.  A  letter 
which  is  like  the  punctiliously  drest  gentleman  com- 
mands immediately  the  attention  necessary  to  get  its 
contents  properly  read  and  considered.  People  give 
such  hasty  glances  to  letters  when  they  are  received  in 
large  numbers  that  the  first  impression  is  almost  the 
key  to  first  success. 

Margins  are  a  matter  of  art.  The  top  of  the  letter 
should  not  look  crowded,  but  at  the  same  time  the  mass 
of  the  letter  should  not  drop  below  the  center  of  the 
page.  The  date-line  should  be  well  up  unless  the  letter- 
head is  a  large  and  heavy  one.  If  the  letter  is  short, 
the  side-margins  should  be  wide,  but  in  typewritten 
letters  never  less  than  an  inch  on  the  left  and  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  on  the  right,  and  paragraph  in- 
dentations about  the  same.    Pen-written  letters  may 

67 


68         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


have  less  margin  and  less  indentation,  say  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch.  The  best-looking  letter  has  the 
effect  of  about  the  same  margin  all  around  except  that 
there  may  be  a  little  more  at  the  bottom. 

Spacing  is  somewhat  a  matter  of  taste,  but  single- 
spaced  typewritten  letters  should  have  a  double  space 
between  paragraphs  and  above  and  below  the  salutation. 
Pen-written  letters  do  not  need  extra  spacing. 

The  date-line  should  always  be  placed  to  the  right  of 
the  center-line  of  the  page;  it  should  include  the  full 
address,  street,  town,  state — as  well  as  the  date  written 
and  punctuated  thus :  Nov.  5,  1919.  "When  it  is  long  we 
abbreviate  the  month,  when  short  we  do  not.  Omit  *Hh" 
after  5. 

The  address  of  the  person  written  to  is  usually 
placed  at  the  top  of  the  letter  on  the  left-hand  side, 
flush  with  the  margin,  in  not  less  than  two  nor  more 
than  three  lines.  The  town  in  the  second  line  may  come 
flush  with  the  margin  or  be  indented  as  a  paragraph, 
and  a  third  line,  if  indented  at  all,  should  be  indented 
as  much  more,  so  as  to  present  a  pleasing  slope  to  the 
right.  In  social  and  semi-social  business  letters  the 
name  and  address  may  come  at  the  end,  flush  with  the 
left-hand  margin,  and  this  is  usually  considered  best 
when  the  name  (as  ^^My  dear  Mr.  Jones'')  is  used  in 
the  salutation.  The  best  business  usage  does  not  insist 
on  this,  however. 

The  salutation  should  always  come  flush  with  the 
left-hand  margin.  It  is  old-fashioned  to  indent  it. 
And  it  should  be  followed  by  a  comma  in  social  letters 
usually,  and  a  colon  in  business  letters.  The  semicolon, 
still  taught  in  some  schools,  is  absolutely  taboo  in  busi- 
ness practise  and  the  colon  and  dash,  while  still  widely 
used,  are  not  considered  by  careful  letter-writers  to  be 
as  good  as  the  colon  alone. 


THE  FORM  OF  THE  LETTER 


69 


The  National  Cash  Register  Company 


Daxton,Ohio.  March  6,  1915. 


Mr.  Sherwin  Cody, 

Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Mr,  Cody: 

I  have  Just  received  your 
letter  of  March  4. 

I  still  feel  our  Dayton 
people  cannot  te  interested  In  this 
at  the  present  time  and  therefore 
do  not  advise,  attempting  It. 


Very  truly  yours, 


BUSINESS   STYLE,  MARGINS  AND  ARRANGEMENT  FOR  VERY  SHORT  LETTER 


70         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


In  business  letters,  *^Dear  Sir"  for  single  men, 

Gentlemen"  for  companies  or  firms,  and  ^'Dear 
Madam"  for  all  women  are  standard  and  established. 
The  old  or  English  form  ''Dear  Sirs"  is  out  of  date, 
and  ''Dear  Miss"  is  taboo;  but  for  young  girls  "Dear 
Miss  Jones,"  with  the  name,  is  used  whenever  there  is 
any  excuse  for  it. 

In  social  letters  or  semi-social  business  letters,  "My 
dear  Mr.  Jones"  is  a  little  more  formal  than  "Dear  Mr. 
Jones,"  and  both  are  desirable  when  there  is  a  certain 
degree  of  personal  acquaintance.  In  very  formal 
official  letters,  "Sir"  alone  may  be  used,  but  occasions 
for  it  are  very,  very  few. 

The  body  of  a  letter  should  begin  as  a  paragraph. 
The  older  style  of  beginning  the  body  of  the  letter 
directly  under  the  end  of  the  salutation  is  rapidly  pass- 
ing out  of  use.  The  paragraph  indentation  should  vary 
from  five  typewriter  spaces  to  ten  according  to  the  size 
of  the  letter,  but  for  common  letter-writing  about  eight 
spaces  is  most  desirable.  Pen-written  letters  have 
slightly  less  indentation  as  a  rule,  from  half  to  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch. 

The  close  for  a  business  letter  should  start  just  to  the 
left  of  the  center  of  the  page,  only  the  first  word  should 
begin  with  a  capital  letter,  and  it  should  be  followed  by 
a  comma.  "Yours  truly"  is  the  commonest  formal  busi- 
ness close,  "Very  truly  yours"  is  a  degree  more  cor- 
dial, and  "Cordially  yours"  is  justified  in  letters  in 
which  a  certain  intimate  personal  relationship  is  sug- 
gested, as  between  a  school  principal  and  his  prospective 
pupils.  "Sincerely  yours"  should  be  reserved  for  social 
letters  or  business  letters  to  actual  personal  friends, 
while  such  a  close  as  "Faithfully  yours"  has  an  indi- 
vidual personal  touch  suitable  for  a  somewhat  aggressive 
professional  man  for  example. 


THE  FORM  OF  THE  LETTER  71 


tSTABUSHtO  JB80      ^  [    ^\~^  ]p  J^^J^  TWO  OOUARS  AYEAK 

A  SEMI-MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF  UTERAKT  CWTiaSM  fe^  INIORMAnON 
PUBLISHED  ON  THE  FIRST  AND  SIXTEENTH  OF  EACH  MONTH 
PUBUCATION  OFFICE :  tn  SOUTH  SHERMAN  STREET-  CHICAGO 

Uarch  6,  1915. 


Jly  dear  Mr.  Cody: 

I  have  teen  meaning  for  a  long  time  to 
write  you  a  note  thanking  you  for  the  letter  yo\i 
sent  the  DIAL. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  ve  have  lacked 
literary  solidarity  in  America.    Our  people  have 
been  absorbed  in  so  many  different  things  i,hat 
they  have  not  had  time  to  formulate  and  discuss 
literary  standards:  they  are  still  a  weltering 
human  mass. 

Our  country  has  been  rapidly  coming 
Into  a  position  of  l-aternational  prominence,  and 
that  must  bring  with  it  a  sense  of  national  dig- 
nity and  no  doubt  national  literary  self-realiz- 
ation. 

Host  cordially  yours, 

Sherwln  Cody,  Esq.,  / 
Lake  Bluff,  .lU. 


PROFESSIONAL  STYLE,  ARRANGEMENT  SUITED  TO  LONG  LETTER 


72         HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  signature  should  always  be  clearly  legible  unless 
it  is  printed  on  the  letter-head.  It  is  a  great  nuisance 
to  get  a  letter  from  a  man  and  not  be  able  to  make  out 
his  name.  Women  should  place  ^^Miss"  or  ^^Mrs."  in 
parentheses  before  their  names  in  writing  to  strangers, 
or  sign  their  personal  name  and  write  their  husband's 
name  with  Mrs.  below  in  parentheses.  It  is  very  em- 
barrassing, not  to  say  rude,  for  a  woman  to  sign  initials 
like  a  man,  or  fail  to  indicate  whether  she  is  married  or 
single. 

The  envelop  should  have  the  address  in  the  lower 
half,  well  spaced  out,  the  body  of  it  a  little  to  the  right 
of  the  center,  but  never  crowded  up  against  the  right- 
hand  margin.  The  name,  the  street,  the  town,  the  state 
should  each  have  a  line  to  itself,  with  good  space  between 
it  and  the  next  item.  The  last  item  should  be  an  eighth 
to  a  quarter  of  an  inch  from  the  bottom  of  the  envelop 
the  first  item  a  trifle  above  the  middle,  and  the  space 
between  equally  divided  between  the  items.  The  ends 
of  the  lines,  except  the  last,  may  have  commas  or  no 
punctuation.  Periods  are  wrong.  If  the  address  is 
long,  it  is  desirable  to  put  one  item  in  the  lower  left- 
hand  corner,  on  the  same  line  as  the  state  (the  last 
line). 

The  punctuation  of  a  letter  is  formal  and  conven- 
tional as  far  as  the  opening  and  close  are  concerned. 
In  the  body  of  a  letter  the  comma  is  used  only  when  . 
required  to  make  the  meaning  clear.  As  a  rule,  the 
letters  of  persons  trained  on  book-rules  are  over- 
punctuated.  When  no  confusion  will  result  it  is  justi- 
fiable to  omit  a  comma  regardless  of  a  rule.  Trans- 
posed phrases  and  clauses  when  short  need  not  be  set 
off  by  commas,  yet  contrast  or  distinction  may  always 
be  shown  by  inserting  a  comma,  regardless  of  rules.  In 
business  letters  the  essential  rules  are  very  few. 


THE  FORM  OF  THE  LETTER  73 


Rules  for  Commas 

Rule  1.  Words,  phrases,  and  clauses  in  a  true  series 
should  be  separated  by  commas,  including  a  comma 
before  ^^and"  preceding  the  last  item  (omitting  the 
comma  before  the  *^and,''  tho  still  common,  is  not  now 
regarded  as  the  best  usage). 

Rule  2.  Clauses  and  participial  phrases  that  are 
merely  explanatory  are  set  off  by  commas,  while  those 
which  are  restrictive  are  not  set  off. 

Rule  3.  Transposed  words  or  clauses  are  set  off  by 
commas,  unless  short  so  that  no  confusion  would  be 
likely. 

Rule  4.  Words  or  phrases  thrown  into  the  sentence 
are  set  off  by  commas. 

Rule  5.  In  compound  sentences,  a  comma  should  pre- 
cede the  *^and"  or  or"  if  the  subject  of  the  last  part  is 
exprest  (a  true  compound  sentence),  and  should 
nearly  always  precede  ^^but,''  or  be  used  before  ^^and'^ 
or  ^*or''  when  it  is  followed  by  some  disjunctive  word 
like  ^^also"  (if  indeed  a  semicolon  is  not  required).  If 
clauses  are  short  and  closely  connected,  no  commas  need 
be  used  even  when  required  by  this  rule,  and  when  they 
are  long,  and  grouping  by  commas  will  help  easy  read- 
ing, commas  should  be  inserted  even  when  they  would  be 
contrary  to  the  rule. 

Rules  for  Semicolons 

Semicolons  are  used  for  only  three  purposes,  to  sep- 
arate sentences  which  are  short  and  closely  related;  to 
separate  groups  of  words  which  are  themselves  sub- 
divided by  commas  (as  items  of  goods  in  an  order  when 
there  are  several  descriptive  items)  ;  and  before  ^^but" 
and  other  disjunctive  words  like  ^^and  also"  in  com- 
pound sentences  when  the  second  part  is  strongly  con- 
trasted. 


74         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Rules  for  Colons 

Colons  are  used  only  after  salutations  and  words 
equivalent  to  '^as  follows."  The  dash  indicates  an  ab- 
rupt transition,  or  is  used  as  a  mild  colon  to  precede 
summaries.  Other  marks  do  not  offer  difficulty,  but 
require  merely  attention  to  their  use. 

How  to  Study  Punctuation 

With  these  rules  engraved  deeply  and  permanently 
on  the  mind,  explain  each  punctuation-mark  in  the  let- 
ters in  this  book. 

How  to 'Master  the  Form  of  Letters 

The  best  exercise  on  the  form  of  letters  is  to  copy  the 
model  letters  through  this  book  till  this  can  be  done 
without  error  and  in  handsome  artistic  form.  Ten  or 
a  dozen  letters  of  different  kinds  should  be  copied. 


I 


THE  CONVERSATIONAL  STYLE  IN  LETTER- 
WRITING 

Natural  and  Easy  Ways  to  Begin  a  Business  Letter* 

DON'T  begin  all  your  letters  in  the  same  well-worn, 
stereotyped  fashion,  as : 

*^In  reply  to  your  esteemed  letter  of  the  12th  inst.,  we 
beg  to  apprise''; 

*^In  answer  to  your  letter  of  the  5th  inst.,  we  have  the 
honor  to  inform  you"; 

^*We  are  in  possession  of  your  favor  of  the  28th  Feb., 
to  which  we  hasten  to  reply" ; 

'^Your  esteemed  letter  of  the  16th  inst.  is  duly  to 
hand,  in  which  you  advise  me  to  take  good  note"; 

Referring  to  your  esteemed  communication  of  the 
16th  inst.,  please  send." 

YOU  WOULDN'T  TALK  LIKE  THAT.  Don't  write 
like  that. 

The  Right  Way 

Begin  at  once  on  what  you  have  to  say,  and  acknowl- 
edge incidentally  the  letter  you  are  answering.  For 
example,  begin  (if  the  letter  contains  an  order)  : 

**We  thank  you  cordially  for  the  order  contained  in 
your  letter  of  the  16th  inst.,  just  at  hand,  but  wish  to 
inquire." 

If  letter  asks  a  favor  of  some  kind,  begin : 
^*We  have  read  yours  of  the  16th  carefully,  but  can 
not  see  our  way  at  present  to  grant  your  request " ;  or, 

♦The  use  of  capital  letters  in  the  text  happily  illustrates  the 
peculiar  intensified  emphasis  characteristic  of  "business  English." 

75 


76         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


'^We  fully  appreciate  all  you  say  in  your  letter  of 
the  16th  inst.,  just  received,  but'';  or, 

^ '  I  should  very  much  like  to  do  what  you  ask  in  your 
letter  of  the  16th  inst.,  but." 

If  the  letter  asks  information,  begin  to  give  the  infor- 
mation at  once: 

**Yes,  we  have  such  a  machine  as  you  describe  in  your 
letter  of  January  16th,  and  are  sending  you  our  catalog, 
in  which  you  will  find  full  description  of  it  on  page 
000";  or, 

**We  are  sending  you  our  catalog,  in  which  you  will 
find  the  information  you  ask  for  in  yours  of  the  16th — 
pages  000  and  000";  or, 

^*It  gives  us  pleasure  to  quote  you  on  the  articles 
mentioned  in  your  favor  of  the  16th  inst.,  as  follows:" 
etc. 

Natural  and  Easy  Way  to  Close  a  Business  Letter 

DON'T  close  your  letter  with  a  set  phrase  that  your 
customer  will  see  every  time  he  gets  a  letter  from  you, 
and  so  know  that  it  means  nothing.  Business  letters  are 
too  short  to  be  filled  with  words  that  do  not  mean  the 
most  that  words  can  mean. 

Don't  say: 

'  ^  Trusting  we  may  have  a  continuance  of  your  valued 
patronage,  we  are,  your  most  obedient  servants";  or, 

^'Soliciting  your  further  orders,  we  remain.  Dear 
Sir";  or. 

Trusting  this  will  be  satisfactory,  we  are." 
Say  anything  that  is  natural,  friendly,  and  intelli- 
gent, and  do  not  insist  on  ending  your  letters  with  '*we 
are"  or  ''we  remain."  These  are  not  bad  words,  but 
they  are  greatly  overworked.  Get  variety  and  intelli- 
gent meaning  into  the  ends  of  your  letters. 


THE  CONVERSATIONAL  STYLE  77 

Thanking  you  cordially  for  your  order,  we  remain," 
is  a  standard  form  that  may  be  used  when  a  mere  form 
is  required. 

*'We  shall  be  very  glad  if  the  quotations  we  have 
given  meet  your  requirements,  and  you  will  favor  us 
with  your  order.    Truly  yours." 

*'If  you  need  anything  more  in  our  line,  we  hope  you 
will  remember  us.      Very  truly  yours." 

''We  are  anxious  to  do  everything  we  can  for  the 
convenience  and  accommodation  of  our  customers,  and 
hope  you  will  remember  us  when  you  have  further 
orders  to  place." 

''We  hope  we  have  succeeded  in  pleasing  you,  and 
trust  you  will  afford  us  another  opportunity  of  serving 
you." 

If  the  letter  is  not  one  requiring  what  would  corre- 
spond to  a  graceful  bow  on  the  part  of  a  salesman  taking 
leave  of  a  customer,  simply  write  "Yours  truly," 
"Yours  faithfully,"  or  whatever  form  seems  most  ap- 
propriate, and  sign  your  letter.  The  habit  of  always 
forcing  in  some  meaningless  close  is  a  bad  one.  Polite- 
ness and  a  pleasant  manner  are  always  appreciated, 
however,  if  they  are  genuine.  The  moment  they  be- 
come "machine-made"  they  lose  their  force.  Therefore, 
be  genuinely  polite  in  all  your  letters  as  well  as  in  your 
personal  dealings. 

How  to  Acquire  an  Easy  Business  Style 

NEVER  USE  IN  A  LETTER  WORDS  YOU 
WOULD  NOT  USE  IN  CONVERSATION. 

They  make  your  letter  seem  stiff  and  formal,  and  pre- 
vent your  getting  into  sympathy  with  the  man  or  woman 
to  whom  you  are  writing. 


78         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Words  to  be  avoided  are:  Same  (as  a  pronoun — the 
same),  herewith,  beg,  esteemed,  apprise,  have  the  honor. 

There  is  a  simple  method  by  which  you  can  acquire  an 
easy  and  natural  style  in  letter-writing. 

Imagine  that  your  customer  is  sitting  opposite  you. 
Talk  to  him  in  your  letter  just  as  you  would  if  he  really 
sat  there.  Never  use  a  word  in  writing  that  you  would 
not  use  in  talking.  Plunge  at  once  into  what  you  have 
to  say.  Say  it  naturally  and  without  effort.  Be  sure 
you  say  everything  your  customer  will  want  to  know. 
When  you  have  said  what  he  will  want  to  hear,  stop. 

Example 

Mr.  John  Jones, 

Pueblo,  Colo. 
Dear  Sir: 

Replying  to  your  esteemed  favor  of  the  6th  inst.,  we 
beg  to  advise  you  that  at  present  writing  we  are  out  of 
Merchant  brand  all-wool  socks  of  the  size  you  mention, 
but  consignment  is  now  en  route  to  us,  and  we  expect  to 
have  a  full  stock  not  later  than  the  20th.  We  are  hold- 
ing your  order,  and  as  soon  as  goods  arrive  we  will  give 
same  our  prompt  attention. 

Hoping  this  will  be  satisfactory,  we  remain 
Yours  faithfully, 

The  Burley  Merchandise  Co.,  Ltd. 

A  Better  Style 

Mr.  John  Jones, 

Pueblo,  Colo. 
Dear  Sir: 

We  are  very  sorry  to  say  that  just  at  this  moment  we 
do  not  have  in  stock  Merchant  brand  all-wool  socks  of  the 
size  mentioned  in  your  order  of  the  6th.    We  have  a 


THE  CONVERSATIONAL  STYLE  79 


shipment  on  the  way,  and  expect  to  receive  it  in  a  very- 
few  days.  As  soon  as  the  goods  arrive  we  will  fill  your 
order  and  dispatch  it  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

We  trust  you  will  suffer  no  inconvenience  from  the 
short  delay.  Very  truly  yours, 

The  Burley  Merchandise  Co.,  Ltd. 

Very  simple  notes  are  often  worded  in  awkward  com- 
mercial phrases.  Stiff  formality  is  especially  objec- 
tionable when  the  occasion  is  unimportant. 

Secretary's  Letter  of  Acknowledgment 

Dear  Madam: 

Mr.  Jones  requests  me  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  the 
book  you  were  so  kind  as  to  leave  yesterday,  and  to  state 
that  he  hopes  to  see  you  soon  and  thank  you  in  person. 

Respectfully  yours, 

''Requests,''   ''acknowledge  receipt,"  ''state"  are 
commercialized  words  and  so  to  be  avoided  in  a  note  like 
this,  which  should  have  some  grace  and  literary  good 
manners.   Here  is  a  better  version : 
Dear  Madam: 

Mr.  Jones  wishes  me  to  thank  you  for  the  book  you 
kindly  left  yesterday  at  his  office.  He  was  sorry  that  he 
was  out  at  the  time,  but  asks  me  to  say  that  he  hopes  to 
see  you  very  soon  and  thank  you  in  person. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Simple  Letter  Enclosing  Check  to  Pay  a  Bill 

Original : 
Gentlemen : 

We  beg  to  enclose  our  check  for  $134.60  to  cover  your 
invoice  of  July  14th,  which  we  enclose.  Please  receipt 
the  invoice  and  return  to  us  at  your  early  convenience, 
and  believe  us,  Yours  truly, 


80         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Changed : 
Gentlemen : 

We  are  enclosing  our  cheek  for  $134.60  in  payment 
of  the  accompanying  invoice.  Will  you  kindly  acknowl- 
edge receipt? 

We  thank  you  in  advance.  Yours  truly, 

The  slight  changes  in  this  letter  do  not  amount  to 
much  the  first  time  or  the  second  time,  but  the  thousandth 
time  the  accumulated  impression  is  vast. 

A  Letter  of  Endorsement 

Poor : 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  received  a  copy  of  your  book  entitled  ^EBusi- 
ness Correspondence, ' '  and  beg  to  advise  that  I  have  ex- 
amined it  with  care.  I  find  it  a  remarkably  practical 
and  useful  work,  full  of  common-sense  ideas  and  well 
fitted  to  be  found  on  the  desk  of  any  correspondent. 
Permit  me  to  congratulate  you  on  your  success  in  this 
regard. 

Yours  truly, 

Better : 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  been  reading  your  book  on  Business  Corre- 
spondence," and  it  has  interested  me  more  than  any- 
thing else  on  this  subject  that  I  have  seen  for  a  long 
time.  Your  suggestions  are  full  of  common  sense,  and 
I  am  sure  they  will  really  help  any  correspondent  who 
may  apply  them  to  his  own  work.  They  have  helped 
me,  and  I  am  eager  to  see  anything  else  on  this  subject 
you  may  write. 

Congratulating  you,  I  am         Sincerely  yours. 


THE  CONVERSATIONAL  STYLE  81 


Answer  to  an  Inquiry 

The  following  letter  is  given  as  a  model  in  a  recent 
book  on  business  letter-writing. 
Gentlemen : 

In  answer  to  your  communication  of  Dec.  1st,  with 
reference  to  the  character  and  business  stability  of  a 
certain  firm  in  this  city,  would  say  that  upon  investiga- 
tion we  find  said  firm  to  be  financially  embarrassed,  and 
utterly  devoid  of  honorable,  reliable  business  principles. 
We  can  not  recommend  you  to  do  business  with  them. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Reserve  and  restraint  should  always  characterize  a 
letter  like  this.    Greater  force  often  lies  in  what  is  left 
unsaid. 
Gentlemen : 

On  receipt  of  your  letter  of  Dec.  1st  we  made  investi- 
gations, and  as  a  result  we  do  not  recommend  credit 
transactions.  Yours  truly. 

The  Telegraphic  Style 

This  is  poor : 
Dear  Sir: 

I  enclose  herewith  return  copy  of  lease  favor  J.  H. 
Jones,  same  having  been  executed  on  behalf  of  this  com- 
pany. Please*  deliver  to  owner  and  acknowledge  receipt 
hereof.  Yours  truly, 

Herewith"  and  ''hereof"  are  good  words  to  avoid — 
especially  the  latter.  What  is  the  objection  to  a  simple, 
straightforward  statement  in  natural  English  ?  The  fol- 
lowing is  shorter  as  well  as  simpler : 

Dear  Sir: 

Will  you  kindly  hand  to  J.  H.  Jones  the  enclosed  lease, 
which  has  been  duly  executed  by  the  Company,  and 
acknowledge  your  receipt  of  it.       Yours  truly, 


82         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Colloquialisms  and  Slang 

Since  business  letters  are  written  in  conversational 
English,  the  standard  of  purity  is  different  from  that 
which  applies  to  literary  English. 

Slang  may  be  defined  as  words  or  phrases  which  have 
a  touch  of  vulgarity  about  them  which  prohibits  their 
use  in  writing  of  any  kind,  and  also  in  conversation. 

Colloquialisms  are  homely  expressions  which  do  not 
shock  the  refined  ear  in  conversation,  but  which  are  out 
of  place  in  careful  literary  compositions. 

Colloquialisms  may  be  used  in  letter-writing  if  neces- 
sary to  make  the  meaning  clear  and  forceful,  but  slang 
should  be  strictly  avoided. 

AN  ILLUSTRATIVE  CHAIN  OF  LETTERS 
The  Inquiry 

Cranford,  N.  H.,  March  30,  1919. 

Messrs.  Jones  &  Co., 

Boston,  Mass. 

Gentlemen : 

I  wish  a  dress  made  to  order,  and  write  to  know  what 
you  can  do  for  me.  Do  you  send  samples  of  spring 
dress-goods?  And  do  you  have  anything  which  shows 
styles  and  how  to  take  measurements? 

Oblige, 

(Mrs.)  Bertha  M.  Smith. 

The  Response 

Boston,  Mass.,  April  1,  1919. 

Mrs.  Bertha  M.  Smith, 

Cranford,  N.  H. 
Dear  Madam : 

In  accordance  with  your  request  of  March  30,  we  take 
pleasure  in  sending  you  our  spring  catalog  under  sep 


THE  CONVERSATIONAL  STYLE  83 


arate  cover,  including  a  large  variety  of  sample  pieces 
of  summer  dress-goods,  representing  all  the  latest  and 
prettiest  weaves. 

We -believe  that  we  carry  the  largest  line  of  high-grade 
dress-goods  in  this  country,  and  the  name  ''Jones''  is 
a  sjoionym  for  excellence  at  a  moderate  price.  If  you 
will  write  us  more  in  detail,  we  shall  have  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  assisting  you  to  make  a  suitable  selection. 
"We  trust  we  may  hear  from  you  again  in  a  short  time. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Jones  &  Co., 
By  S.  D. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  be  stiff  even  if  you  are  formal 
in  a  business  letter.  In  this  letter  and  the  others  in 
this  chapter,  colloquialisms  would  be  out  of  place.  You 
can  not  talk  to  a  strange  lady  in  the  same  free  style  you 
would  to  an  intimate  friend. 


The  Order 

April  9,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

I  have  decided  to  have  a  dress  made  of  the  goods  like 
the  enclosed  sample,  in  your  style  No.  997.  I  will  have 
it  full  silk-lined,  price  $40,  exactly  as  described  in  the 
catalog.  I  have  filled  out  a  measurement-blank,  and 
enclose  it. 

I  don't  see  how  I  can  be  quite  sure  that  the  dress  will 
fit  me  unless  I  have  tried  it  on.  I  think  I  may  go  to 
Boston  the  latter  part  of  the  month,  and  if  you  can  have 
it  ready  I  might  try  it  on  then. 

Very  truly  yours, 

(Mrs.)  Bertha  M.  Smith. 


84         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Acknowledging  the  Order 

Dear  Madam:  April  11,  1919. 

We  thank  you  for  your  order  of  April  9  and  shall  hope 
to  please  you  in  every  way  in  filling  it.  You  will  re- 
member, however,  that  it  is  stated  in  our  catalog  that  at 
least  half  the  price  of  a  made-to-order  garment  must  be 
paid  in  advance.  We  ask  this  not  only  of  you  but  of 
every  one,  for  you  can  readily  understand  that  this  is 
the  only  protection  we  have.  While  ready-made  gar- 
ments may  always  be  returned  and  money  will  be  re- 
funded, we  can  not  take  back  made-to-order  garments  or 
exchange  them. 

We  guarantee,  however,  that  we  will  give  you  a  per- 
fect fit,  and  that  you  will  find  the  workmanship  and 
style  unexceptionable  in  every  way.  If  the  dress  is  not 
made  precisely  as  you  order  it,  your  money  will  be  re- 
funded promptly.  You  will  see,  therefore,  that  you,  too, 
are  fully  protected. 

The  most  convenient  Vvay  will  be  for  you  to  send  the 
entire  amount  in  advance.  If  you  wish,  however,  you 
may  send  half,  and  the  other  half  will  be  collected  when 
the  goods  are  delivered. 

As  soon  as  we  hear  from  you  we  will  begin  work  at 
once,  and  if  you  are  to  be  in  Boston  you  can  call  and 
have  the  dress  fitted  in  our  workrooms. 

We  hope  we  may  be  able  to  please  you. 

Yours  truly, 

Jones  &  Co. 

The  Inquiry 

Montpelier,  Vt.,  Jan.  10,  1919. 
Coventry  Supply  House, 
Coventry,  N.  Y. 
Gentlemen : 

I  have  your  catalog,  and  have  looked  all  through  it 
to  find  the  kind  of  gun  I  want,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  be 


THE  CONVERSATIONAL  STYLE  85 

there.  All  the  guns  described  in  the  catalog  are  rifles, 
and  I  want  a  light  shotgun — a  good  gun  for  little  money. 
Do  you  have  any  guns  of  this  kind? 

Do  you  sell  furs  ?  My  wife  wants  to  use  some  in  mak- 
ing up  a  jacket.  If  you  do  not  handle  them,  can  you 
tell  me  where  I  can  get  them? 

I  shall  be  very  much  obliged  if  you  will  let  me  hear 
from  you  immediately. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Martin  Fisher. 

The  Response* 

Jan.  16,  1919. 

Mr.  Martin  Fisher, 

Montpelier,  Vt. 
Dear  Sir: 

"We  suspect  from  your  letter  of  January  10  that  you 
do  not  have  our  regular  winter  catalog,  and  take  plea- 
sure in  sending  you  a  copy  under  separate  cover. 
Probably  the  catalog  to  which  you  refer  is  our  special 
catalog  of  rifles  in  which  no  shotguns  are  described.  If 
you  will  look  on  pages  95-96  of  the  catalog  we  are  send- 
ing you,  you  will  find  a  number  of  shotguns  described 
and  quoted.  Some  are  priced  very  low  indeed,  yet  we 
fully  guarantee  everything  we  sell,  and  you  may  be  sure 
that  you  will  find  nothing  better  of  its  kind  on  the 
market. 

We  do  not  handle  furs  not  made  up  into  garments. 
For  the  skins  we  would  refer  you  to  Messrs.  Back,  Becker 
&  Co.,  Washington  Street,  Boston.    If  you  ask  them  for 

scraps"  and  tell  them  exactly  what  use  your  wife 
wishes  to  make  of  them,  possibly  you  can  get  small 

*  Observe  that  the  response  is  full,  courteous,  and  helpful,  tho  the 
subject-matter  seems  unimportant.  Heads  of  houses  could  not  afford 
to  write  such  letters,  but  employees  at  low  salaries  may  easily  be 
trained  to  do  so,  and  carefully  prepared  letters  may  be  adapted  so  as 
to  be  used  many  times. 


86         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


pieces  at  a  low  price  which  will  serve  as  well  as  expen- 
sive whole  skins. 

We  hope  you  will  look  our  catalog  through  carefully 
at  your  leisure,  for  we  know  you  will  find  many  ex- 
cellent bargains.  We  carry  only  new  and  high-class 
stock,  and  permit  our  customers  to  return,  at  our  ex- 
pense, any  article  they  do  not  find  exactly  as  represented. 
If  at  any  time  you  receive  any  goods  that  do  not  please 
you,  tho  we  have  filled  your  order  exactly  as  you  have 
sent  it,  still  you  can  return  the  goods  and  we  will  refund 
your  money,  less  forwarding  charges.  We  are  always 
pleased  to  answer  questions,  and  will  do  everything  in 
our  power  to  aid  you. 

Yours  truly, 

Coventry  Supply  House. 

Assignment  IX 

Supposing  that  we  have  selected  a  business  which  we 
have  studied  with  care  so  that  we  can  apply  to  it  the 
System  of  Analysis,  and  have  chosen  some  one  item  of 
goods  which  we  understand  well  enough  so  that  we 
know  what  questions  customers  might  ask,  let  us — 

1.  Formulate  the  question  orally  and  then  in  a  letter 
of  inquiry, 

2.  Answer  the  question  orally,  and  then  in  a  letter 
replying  to  the  inquiry, 

3.  In  reply  to  No.  2  place  a  conditional  order,  first 
stating  the  order  orally  and  then  in  the  form  of  a  letter, 

4.  Acknowledge  the  order  in  an  appreciative  way, 
first  orally,  then  in  a  letter. 

5.  We  may  repeat  these  four  steps  in  the  study  of 
another  item  of  goods,  and  if  necessary  a  third  item, 
until  this  interchange  of  business  can  be  executed  with 
some  tact,  human  feeling,  and  intelligent  sympathy. 


II 


ORDERING  GOODS  AND  HANDLING 
INQUIRIES 

Two  Kinds  of  Letters — Buying  and  Selling 

In  business  there  are  two  things — buying  and  selling. 
Successful  buying  consists  in  knowing  what  to  buy,  and 
the  only  important  thing  in  buying  is  to  specify  every- 
thing you  want  and  make  it  perfectly  clear  just  how 
you  want  it. 

Buying-letters  should  be  just  as  brief  as  possible — 
they  can't  be  too  brief  in  the  mere  matter  of  words  if 
they  cover  clearly  every  essential  point. 

Selling-letters,  on  the  other  hand,  must  be  as  long  as 
the  prospective  customer  will  read — and  must  display  all 
the  fine  art  and  highest  skill  in  letter-writing.  It  is  in 
these  letters  that  the  fine  art  of  business  English  is  dis- 
played, and  in  which  the  true  art  of  advertising  must  be 
constantly  exercised. 

Ordering  Goods 

In  ordering  goods  be  sure  to — 

1.  Make  a  list,  or  arrange  in  a  column,  if  there  are 
several  items,  to  avoid  confusion, 

2.  Give  sizes,  styles,  and  all  other  details  you  possibly 
can,  or  clearly  explain  what  you  want, 

3.  State  how  money  is  sent,  or  how  you  intend  to 
make  payment, 

4.  Indicate  whether  shipment  is  to  be  made  by  mail, 
express,  or  freight.    Remember  that  if  goods  are  to  be 

«7 


88         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


sent  by  mail,  money  should  usually  accompany  the  order, 
including  an  allowance  for  the  postage. 

The  letter  can  not  be  too  brief,  but  it  must  be  clear 
and  complete. 

A  Poor  Letter  Ordering  Goods 

Ashford/  Feb.  8,  1919. 

Whittington  &  Co., 

New  York.2 
Gentlemen : 

Please  send  as  soon  as  possible  Rand-McNally's  atlas,^ 
a  dozen  handkerchiefs,  five  cakes  of  soap,  and  some 
writing-paper  and  a  half  a  dozen  pens.  Send  as  soon  as 
you  can,^  and  I  will  pay  on  arrival.^ 

Yours  truly, 

Martha  Martin. 

1.  The  address  is  not  sufficient,  since  the  state  is 
omitted.    If  the  town  is  small,  always  give  the  county. 

2.  Always  give  the  street  address  when  you  can. 

3.  Rand,  McNally  &  Co.  publish  many  atlases  at  many 
prices,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to  know  from  this 
statement  what  was  wanted.  There  are  many  grades  of 
handkerchiefs,  many  brands  of  soap,  and  a  great  variety 
of  paper  and  pens.  Not  a  single  item  in  this  order 
could  be  intelligently  supplied. 

4.  This  is  practically  a  repetition  of  the  language 
with  which  the  letter  opens. 

5.  Small  consignments  of  goods  are  usually  not 
shipped  to  a  distance  unless  the  price  is  paid  in  advance. 
In  any  case,  there  should  be  a  clear  statement  as  to  just 
how  the  goods  should  be  forwarded,  whether  by  mail, 
express,  or  freight,  unless  there  is  a  free  wagon-delivery 
from  a  large  local  store.  , 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  89 


The  Same  Letter  Properly  Written 

Ashford,  Conn.,  Feb.  8,  1919. 
Messrs.  Whittington  &  Co., 
3  Whitehall  St., 

New  York  City. 

Gentlemen : 

Please  send  as  soon  as  possible  the  following : 

1  Rand-McNally's  Popular  Atlas  of  the  "World,  $2; 

1  doz.  ladies'  white  linen  handkerchiefs,  the  best  value 
you  have  at  about  25c.  each; 

6  cakes  of  glycerine  soap,  10c.  a  cake,  6  for  50c. ; 

A  box  of  ladies'  cream  note-paper  and  envelops, 
rough  finish,  unruled,  about  35c.,  or  any  special  value 
you  have  of  this  grade. 

I  enclose  money-order  for  $5,  and  will  ask  you  to 
refund  any  balance  in  my  favor  or  prepay  forwarding 
charges. 

Yours  truly, 

(Miss)  Martha  Martin. 

End.  M.  0. 

Notice  in  regard  to  this  letter — 

1.  That  while  it  is  not  necessary  to  prefix  Messrs." 
to  a  firm  name,  it  bespeaks  your  culture  and  education, 
as  well  as  your  courteous  disposition,  to  be  careful  in 
these  details. 

2.  When  different  articles  are  ordered,  each  item 
should  be  given  a  line  by  itself — ^that  is,  should  be  made 
a  paragraph,  even  if,  as  in  this  case,  the  various  items 
are  separated  by  semicolons  and  form  parts  of  a  single 
sentence.  This  is  a  case  in  which  the  sentence  includes 
several  paragraphs. 


90         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

3.  Observe  that  items  of  this  sort  should  be  separated 
by  semicolons,  while  after  the  last  one  you  place  a  period. 
The  semicolon  means,  in  a  practical  way,  There  is 
more  to  come,"  while  the  period  means,  ^^This  is  the 
last  item.'* 

4.  Always  describe  what  you  want  so  fully  that  you 
are  sure  the  clerk  will  know  exactly  what  to  send  you. 
Never  send  an  order  by  mail  for  something  you  are  your- 
self in  doubt  about.  It  is  better  to  write  first  for  infor- 
mation. 

5.  Many  women  have  an  idea  that  it  is  independent  to 
sign  initials  (so  that  a  stranger  receiving  a  letter  does 
not  know  whether  it  comes  from  a  man  or  a  woman),  or 
else  the  simple  given  name  without  Miss  or  Mrs. ;  but  the 
only  courteous  way  is  to  relieve  the  stranger  of  the  em- 
barrassment of  guessing  whether  you  are  married  or 
single,  and  avoid  ridiculous  blunders  by  writing  Miss  or 
Mrs.  before  the  name  in  parentheses.  Only  vulgar 
people  write  it  without  the  parentheses. 


Answering  Inquiries 

Before  answering  any  letter  be  sure  that  you  under- 
stand fully  all  about  the  subject  concerning  which  you 
are  going  to  write.  If  you  do  not  understand  clearly 
every  phase  of  it,  make  inquiries  until  you  understand. 

When  you  understand  the  matter  yourself,  explain 
everything  clearly,  point  by  point,  to  the  customer. 

Think  of  the  customer  as  a  little  child,  and  tell  him 
all  about  first  this  point,  and  then  the  next  point,  and 
then  the  next.  Think  carefully  just  what  he  knows,  and 
just  what  he  would  like  to  find  out.  Try  to  put  your- 
self in  his  place. 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  91 


A  Poor  Answer  to  a  Letter  Ordering  Goods 

(Letter-head  and  date.) 
Miss  (Mrs.?)  Martha  Martin, 
Ashford,  Conn.  {1)} 
Dear  Miss^  or  Madam: 

We  hereby^  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  esteemed^ 
order  of  the  8th  inst.,  which  has  had  our  prompt  atten- 
tion.^ We  are  unable  to  ship  the  goods,  however,  since 
you  do  not  state  what  quality  and  kind  of  goods  you 
wish,  and  make  no  enclosure  of  remittance.^ 

If  you  will  supply  us  with  the  necessary  information 
as  to  quality  and  kind  of  goods  desired,  and  will  remit 
a  sufficient  amount,  we  will  give  your  order  immediate 
attention. 

Yours  truly, 

1.  Do  not  insult  a  customer  even  by  the  hinted  criti- 
cism of  a  question-mark. 

2.  '*Dear  Madam''  is  sufficient. 

3.  Such  words  as  *  ^hereby,"  ^'herewith,"  etc.,  are 
usually  unnecessary  in  a  letter,  and  help  to  give  it  that 
forbidding  formality  which  repels  and  deadens  interest. 

4.  Useless  jargon,  quite  meaningless. 

5.  How  many  business  letters  contain  statements  of 
this  kind,  which  really  mean  nothing,  even  if  they  are 
not  untrue ! 

6.  The  writer  evidently  did  not  know  what  she 
wanted,  and  detailed  information  should  have  been  sup- 
plied. 

The  Right  Answer  to  This  Letter 

Martha  Martin,  (Letter-head  and  date.) 

Ashford,  Conn. 
Dear  Madam : 

We  have  received  your  order  of  the  8th,  but  are 


92         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


unable  to  fill  it  until  we  find  out  a  little  more  exactly 
what  you  want. 

Do  you  wish  Rand-McNally's  Popular  Atlas  of  the 
World,  price  $2.00?    We  sell  a  great  many  of  these. 

What  price  do  you  wish  to  pay  for  handkerchiefs,  and 
do  you  wish  white  or  colored,  ladies'  or  gentlemen's 
size  ? 

What  brand  of  soap  do  you  prefer,  and  what  price 
would  you  care  to  pay? 

We  have  ladies'  fancy  writing-paper,  put  up  24  sheets 
and  24  envelops  in  a  box,  at  25c.  to  50c.  a  box;  also 
very  good  note-paper  by  the  pound  at  20c.,  envelops  to 
match  10c.  a  package. 

It  will  be  cheaper  for  you  to  send  the  necessary 
amount  of  money  in  advance,  and  let  us  forward  by 
express,  you  paying  the  charges  when  you  receive  the 
goods.  Of  course,  we  will  let  you  exchange  or  return 
any  goods  you  do  not  like. 

As  soon  as  we  hear  from  you  we  will  give  your  order 
prompt  attention. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Notice — 

1.  That  as  ''Martha  Martin"  did  not  write  ''Miss" 
or  "Mrs."  before  her  name,  no  title  can  safely  be  used. 

2.  That  in  selling  by  mail  you  must  give  the  smallest 
order  as  much  attention  as  the  largest.  The  small  buyer 
may  become  the  big  buyer ;  and  besides,  the  greatest  suc- 
cesses have  been  based  on  uniform  courtesy  to  all. 

3.  That  the  ignorant  customer  wants  suggestion  and 
help — which  should  be  sympathetic,  and  not  officiously 
obtrusive. 

4.  That  every  item  spoken  of  should  have  a  paragraph 
to  itself,  and  the  facts  should  be  stated  in  perfectly  sim- 
ple language,  without  any  trade  terms. 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  93 

5.  That  while  a  letter  ordering  goods  may  be  as  short 
as  you  can  make  it,  a  letter  explaining  difficulties  must 
be  sufficiently  long  to  cover  fully  all  the  details. 

A  Poor  Reply  to  Letter  of  Inquiry 

(A  customer  writes  to  say,  ''I  am  thinking  of  buying 
a  piano.  I  want  something  good,  and  cheap.  What 
would  you  advise?  Have  you  silver  G  strings  for  a 
violin?  I  have  a  pretty  good  violin,  but  the  G  string 
grates  somewhat,  and  I  thought  possibly  a  silver  string 
might  be  better.  What  do  you  charge  for  Chopin's 
''Nocturnes?'') 

Feb.  3,  1919. 

Mrs.  John  Farewell, 

Aberdeen,  N.  Dak. 
My  dear  Madam, 

In  reply  to  your  esteemed  favor,  which  seems  to  have 
no  date,^  we  are  sending  you  our  complete  catalog,  in 
which  you  will  find  full  particulars  of  all  the  styles  of 
pianos,  violin-strings,  and  music  which  we  have,  with 
prices  attached.^  We  sincerely  hope  you  will  be  able 
to  make  a  suitable  selection,  and  that  we  may  be  favored 
with  your  valued^  order  at  an  early  date. 

Trusting  this  information  may  be  entirely  satisfac- 
tory,* we  beg  to  remain,^ 

Yours  truly, 

1.  Almost  an  insult  to  the  customer  to  remind  him 
that  he  has  not  dated  his  letter. 

2.  Attached"  is  used  in  a  technical  commercial 
sense  and  might  confuse  an  ignorant  person.  This  ref- 
erence to  prices  may  just  as  well  be  omitted,  for  the 
customer  in  looking  over  the  catalog  will  find  the  prices. 

3.  ''Valued"  is  meaningless  here. 


94         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


4.  A  word  greatly  overworked,  and  having  little  or 
no  distinct  meaning. 

5.  This  last  sentence  has  been  inserted  merely  to  fill 
out  and  make  a  close.  It  is  just  as  well  to  omit  it  en- 
tirely and  write  simply,    Yours  truly. 

The  Same  Letter  Rewritten 

The  letter  quoted  above  is  a  very  stupid  one,  and  is 
precisely  the  kind  that  is  likely  to  drive  a  customer  away 
just  when  relations  have  been  opened  and  an  excellent 
sale  is  in  prospect.  Any  salesman  who  met  a  customer 
in  a  store  in  this  indifferent  fashion  would  be  discharged 
without  ceremony. 

Blank  &  Blank,  Chicago,  111.,  Feb.  3,  1919. 
Mrs.  John  Farewell, 

Aberdeen,  N.  Dak. 
Dear  Madam: 

We  are  much  interested  in  your  letter  just  received 
and  are  sending  you  our  catalog. 

About  what  price  did  you  wish  to  pay  for  a  piano,  and 
for  what  sized  room  did  you  want  it?  We  have  a 
great  variety,  and  many  excellent  instruments  at  as- 
tonishingly low  prices.  If  you  will  kindly  tell  us  just 
what  you  had  in  mind,  we  shall  take  great  pleasure  in 
advising  you  to  the  best  of  our  ability. 

Quite  possibly  a  silver  string  would  improve  the  tone 
of  your  violin.    We  can  send  you  one  for  $1.00. 

We  enclose  a  little  folder  with  prices  of  standard 
music  which  we  carry.  You  will  find  Chopin's  Noc- 
turnes quoted  on  pages  3,  9,  and  12.  You  will  also  find 
them  in  some  of  the  general  collections  described  on 
page  2.  If  you  do  not  find  just  what  you  want,  write 
more  in  detail. 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  95 


"We  shall  look  for  another  letter  from  you  in  a  day 
or  two,  for  we  feel  sure  we  can  please  you,  and  you 
can  always  depend  on  fair  and  courteous  treatment 
from  us. 

Very  truly  yours, 

SELLING  LETTERS— WITH  THE  INQUIRIES  THEY 
ANSWER 

The  First  Inquiry 

Mar.  3,  1919. 

Messrs.  Macy  &  Co., 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
Gentlemen : 

I  understand  you  sell  men's  furnishings  by  mail. 
Have  you  anything  that  will  show  fully  what  you  offer  ? 
I  wish  to  buy,  but  should  like  full  information  in  regard 
to  what  I  purchase,  and  also  should  like  to  know  if  I 
may  return  anything  I  do  not  like. 

An  early  reply  will  oblige. 

Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 

Reply  to  the  Inquiry 

Mar.  4,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

In  compliance  with  your  request  of  yesterday  we 
hasten  to  send  you  our  complete  catalog,  in  which  you 
will  find  a  detailed  description  of  our  entire  line  of 
goods. 

"We  make  it  a  rule  to  protect  our  customers  in  every 
possible  way.  If  goods  are  not  satisfactory,  they  may 
be  returned  at  our  expense.  We  also  forward  C.  0.  D., 
with  privilege  of  examination. 

We  believe  that  we  have  the  finest  goods  in  our  par- 
ticular line  to  be  found  in  New  York,  or  anywhere  else. 


96         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


You  will  find  us  prompt  and  courteous,  and  anxious  to 
do  anything  we  can  to  serve  you.  Our  salesmen  and 
correspondents  are  at  your  disposal,  and  we  shall  be 
glad  to  give  you  fuller  information  at  any  time  if  you 
let  us  know  just  what  you  are  looking  for. 

Trusting  we  may  hear  from  you  again  at  an  early 
date,  and  have  the  honor  of  filling  your  orders,  we  are 
Most  cordially  yours. 

The  Follow-up  Letter 

Mar.  16,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

About  two  weeks  ago  we  had  an  inquiry  from  you  in 
regard  to  our  line  of  goods,  and  wrote  you  immediately, 
sending  you  our  catalog.  We  should  be  glad  to  know 
if  the  catalog  reached  you  promptly.  If  it  did  not 
come  to  hand,  please  let  us  know  and  we  will  send 
another. 

We  are  confident  that  we  have  the  best  goods  in  our 
line  to  be  found  in  New  York,  or  in  any  city,  and  at 
reasonable  prices.  You  will  not  find  anywhere  a  house 
that  will  extend  you  more  courtesies,  or  deal  by  you 
more  fairly,  nor  will  you  anywhere  get  prompter  ser- 
vice. We  pride  ourselves  on  the  promptness  with  which 
we  fill  all  orders.  Many  of  them  are  filled  the  very  day 
they  are  received. 

May  we  not  hear  from  you  shortly  and  know  in  what 
way  me  may  serve  you? 

Yours  truly. 

The  Second  Inquiry 

Mar.  20,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

I  want  a  pretty  pink  and  blue  cravat  for  about  50c. 
I  do  not  care  to  go  higher.  I  want  one  that  will  wear 
well  and  look  rich.    What  would  you  recommend?  I 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  97 


also  want  some  shirts  and  collars.  Can  you  recommend 
your  50c.  unlaundered  shirts  for  wear?  Do  you  think 
your  10c.  collars  are  as  good  as  the  25c.  ones 

As  soon  as  I  hear  from  you  I  will  send  you  an  order. 
Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 

Answer  to  the  Second  Inquiry 

Mar.  21,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

We  think  we  have  such  a  tie  as  you  describe  in  your 
letter  of  yesterday,  and  if  you  will  send  us  an  order, 
with  as  full  a  description  as  possible  of  what  you  want, 
we  will  exercise  our  best  judgment,  and  believe  we  can 
send  you  something  pretty.  In  any  case,  you  know,  it 
may  be  returned  if  you  do  not  like  it,  and  we  will  make 
another  selection  or  refund  your  money. 

The  fronts  of  our  50c.  unlaundered  shirts  are  rather 
small,  and,  of  course,  the  material  is  not  of  the  finest. 
We  have  something  at  75c.,  which  you  will  find  de- 
scribed under  No.  4786  on  page  32  of  the  catalog,  which 
we  can  recommend  in  every  possible  way,  and  we  believe 
that  you  will  find  this  a  better  bargain  than  the  cheaper 
shirts,  tho  they  are  as  good  for  the  money  as  you  will 
find  elsewhere,  and,  if  anything,  a  little  better. 

We  do  not  hesitate  a  moment  in  recommending  our 
10c.  collars,  in  quarter  sizes.  We  can  fit  you  perfectly, 
and  you  will  not  be  able  to  tell  the  difference  between 
these  and  collars  costing  double.  Remember  that  you 
get  two  of  these  for  one  of  the  others. 

We  shall  hope  to  receive  your  order  at  an  early  date. 
Very  truly  yours, 


*  This  seems  a  foolish  question,  but  may  have  a  certain  meaning  not 
fully  exprest  which  the  correspondent  must  divine  and  answer  intelli- 
gently and  politely. 


98         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  Order 

Mar.  30,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

Please  send  me  your  neatest  pink  and  blue  50c. 
cravat,  two  75c.  unlaundered  shirts,  and  half  a  dozen 
of -your  10c.  collars.  I  enclose  $5,  and  will  ask  you  to 
return  any  balance  remaining. 

Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 


Acknowledging  the  Order  and  Asking  Information 

Mar.  31,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

Thank  you  for  your  order  of  yesterday,  with  remit- 
tance of  $5.  Unfortunately  you  omitted  to  give  the  size 
of  shirts  and  collars.  "We  would  suggest  that  you  send 
not  only  the  neck-measurement,  but  the  length  of  sleeve 
desired.  In  measuring  the  sleeve,  measure  from  the 
seam  on  the  top  of  the  shoulder  to  the  wrist. 

As  soon  as  we  know  the  sizes  desired  we  will  give  your 
order  prompt  attention,  and  you  will  get  the  goods 
within  a  day  or  two. 

Once  more  thanking  you,  we  are 
Yours  truly, 

April  3,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

My  neck  measure  is  16  inches,  and  sleeve  33.  Kindly 
send  the  goods  as  soon  as  possible. 

Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  99 


A  Complaint* 

April  5,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

I  expected  to  receive  to-day  at  the  latest  the  goods 
ordered  of  you  March  30,  but  they  have  not  reached  me. 
Let  me  know  by  return  mail  when  I  shall  get  them. 
Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 

Answer  to  the  Complaint 

April  6,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

The  goods  ordered  by  you  March  30,  you  will  remem- 
ber, we  were  unable  to  forward  until  we  had  received  the 
sizes  given  in  yours  of  April  3.  It  takes  about  one  day 
for  us  to  select  the  goods  and  fill  out  invoices.  These 
were  dispatched  yesterday,  and  notification  mailed  you. 
No  doubt  you  have  received  the  goods  before  this. 

We  hope  you  will  be  pleased  with  what  we  have  sent 
you,  and  that  we  may  be  favored  with  additional  orders 
from  you  in  the  future.  Yours  truly. 

Goods  Received;  Customer  Dissatisfied 

April  6,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

The  goods  I  received  from  you  came  this  evening.  The 
shirts  and  collars  are  all  right,  but  I  do  not  like  the 
cravat  at  all.  I  wanted  something  quiet  and  sober,  and 
you  have  sent  me  a  flaring,  high-colored  thing.  I  send 
it  back  by  post,  and  will  ask  you  to  send  me  another, 
such  as  I  want.  Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 


*  This  complaint  is  absurd,  but  requires  just  as  polite  an  answer  as 
if  it  were  well  founded. 


100       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


A  Pleasant  Letter  of  Adjustment 

April  7,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

We  are  very  sorry  to  see  by  your  favor  of  the  6th  that 
the  cravat  we  chose  did  not  please  you.  We  are  glad 
you  acted  promptly  and  returned  it,  and  no  doubt  we 
shall  receive  it  to-day  or  to-morrow.  As  soon  as  it  comes 
to  hand  we  will  choose  another  that  we  hope  will  please 
you  better,  and  send  it  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

We  are  always  anxious  to  please  our  customers,  and 
you  will  find  us  ready  at  all  times  to  make  every  pos- 
sible effort  to  meet  your  wishes. 

We  trust  we  shall  be  more  fortunate  this  time  in  our 
selection  of  a  cravat. 

Very  truly  yours, 

The  Customer  Impatient 

April  10,  1919. 

Gentlemen : 

A  day  or  two  ago  I  received  your  letter  dated  April 
7,  in  which  you  said  you  would  send  me  another  cravat 
at  once  for  the  one  I  returned  to  you.  I  have  not  yet 
received  it,  and  wish  you  would  trace  it. 

Yours  truly, 

Henry  Farley. 
The  Company  Always  Polite 

April  11,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

We  regret  to  know  by  your  letter  of  the  10th  that  the 
second  cravat  sent  you  had  not  come  to  hand.  It  was 
posted  on  April  8,  but  the  post-office  is  often  a  little 
slow  with  parcels  of  merchandise,  and  it  is  our  experi- 
ence that  goods  sometimes  lie  a  day  or  two  before  they 
go  out. 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  101 

If  you  do  not  receive  the  cravat  by  the  14th,  let  us 
hear  from  you  again,  and  we  will  do  what  we  can  to 
trace  it. 

Hoping,  however,  that  there  will  be  no  more  delay, 
and  that  the  article  when  received  will  prove  satisfac- 
tory, we  are  Very  truly  yours, 

A  Follow-up  Letter  for  a  Later  Order 

July  25,  1919. 

Dear  Sir: 

Some  time  ago  we  received  a  small  order  from  you, 
which  we  hope  we  filled  to  your  satisfaction. 

We  are  mailing  to  you  to-day  our  new  autumn  cata- 
log, and  ask  you  to  look  it  over  carefully,  for  we  believe 
we  have  as  fine  a  line  of  goods  as  you  will  get  anywhere, 
and  at  most  reasonable  prices. 

You  will  find  us  exceptionally  prompt,  and  always 
courteous.  Anything  you  do  not  like  may  be  returned 
at  our  expense,  and  we  will  send  you  something  else  in 
its  place,  or  refund  your  money.  So  you  see  that  you 
take  no  risk  whatever  in  shopping  by  mail. 

May  we  not  hear  from  you  again  soon  ? 

Faithfully  yours. 

Assignment  X.  Letter  Ordering  Goods 

The  writing  of  clear,  definite,  and  complete  orders  is 
an  important  thing  in  every  business.  In  a  manufac- 
turing business,  raw  material  must  be  ordered,  and  in  a 
mercantile  business,  orders  must  be  placed  to  replenish 
the  stock.  In  this  assignment  we  shall  confine  our- 
selves to  orders  for  goods  described  in  the  printed 
matter  which  we  use  as  our  text  on  that  business. 

Let  us  write  a  letter  containing  an  order  for  twelve 
items,  being  sure  that  every  detail  necessary  to  filling 
the  order  has  been  stated.    These  letters  should  be  ex- 


102       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


changed  between  members  of  the  class  and  carefully 
checked  over  to  find  omissions  or  unnecessary  words. 
If  defects  are  found,  either  the  person  finding  them  may 
write  a  letter  asking  for  the  missing  information,  or  the 
teacher  may  require  the  writing  of  a  second  or  third 
letter  ordering  goods  till  this  work  can  be  done  with 
business-like  completeness  and  accuracy. 

Assignment  XI.    Writing  and  Answering  Inquiries 

The  class  may  be  divided  into  two  portions.  Mem- 
bers of  each  half  may  search  the  printed  matter  of  the 
business  that  is  studied  to  find  questions  which  would 
be  fair  inquiries,  even  if  they  themselves  know  the 
answers.  Then  section  one  will  exchange  letters  with 
section  two,  and  they  will  proceed  to  answer  the  in- 
quiries as  in  a  real  business  house.  Some  original  search 
and  investigation  may  be  necessary  to  get  the  answers 
to  the  questions.  This  will  lead  to  a  deeper  study  of 
the  business  than  had  been  made,  and  outside  persons 
familiar  with  the  business  will  have  to  be  interviewed. 
These  may  be  any  employees  in  that  line  of  business 
with  whom  it  is  practicable  to  get  in  touch. 

Assignment  XII.  Making  Sales-Arguments 

When  the  information  required  by  the  preceding 
assignment  has  been  secured  and  discust  so  that  all 
the  points  are  understood  those  receiving  the  inquiries 
should  answer  them  with  a  view  to  making  sales.  If 
the  arguments  do  not  seem  sufficient,  the  reply  may  be 
an  evasive  letter  making  objections ;  but  if  it  appears  to 
be  a  successful  sales-presentation,  a  letter  containing  an 
order  should  be  written.  "When  orders  are  not  given,  a 
follow-up  letter  should  be  written  in  an  attempt  to 
strengthen  the  sales-appeal. 


ORDERING  GOODS,  HANDLING  INQUIRIES  103 

Assignment  XIII.  Caring  for  Delayed  Shipments 

After  orders  have  been  placed,  each  member  of  the 
class  should  write  a  letter  complaining  of  delayed  ship- 
ment, and  the  other  member  of  the  class  to  whom  it  is 
addrest  should  reply  with  a  tactful,  soothing  letter  cal- 
culated to  produce  patience. 

Assignment  XIV.   Adjusting  Complaints 

When  finally  the  goods  are  supposed  to  have  been  re- 
ceived, a  letter  may  be  written  by  each  member  of  the 
two  sections  to  some  member  of  the  opposite  section 
making  complaint  as  to  the  condition  of  the  goods,  and 
a  pleasant  letter  of  adjustment  should  be  written  in 
reply. 


Ill 


SYSTEM  IN  HANDLING  CORRESPONDENCE 

How  to  Write  One  Hundred  Good  Letters  a  Day 

You  write  one  hundred  letters  a  day. 
They  all  seem  to  be  different. 

In  any  large  correspondence,  the  majority  of  the  let- 
ters will  be  routine — that  is,  on  one,  two,  or  three 
general  subjects.  They  may  all  have  the  burden,  *^Pay 
up'';  they  may  all  say,  '^Buy  my  goods";  they  may  be 
answers  to  inquiries  on  one  particular  line  of  goods; 
they  may  be  answers  to  complaints  about  shipments. 

Carefully  think  over  the  letters  of  any  typical  day. 
Divide  them  into  a  few  classes.  Take  up  first  the  largest 
class.  With  carbon  copies  of  a  day's  letters  before  you, 
choose  a  number  which  are  typical  of  the  largest  class. 
Read  half  a  dozen  of  these  aloud  in  succession ;  you  will 
be  surprized  to  find  how  much  alike  they  are. 

There  is  a  great  likeness ;  there  is  a  little  difference. 

The  first  thing  you  want  to  do  is  to  find  out  the  best 
ways  of  handling  the  part  that  is  common  to  all. 

Spend  an  entire  evening  studying  that  type  over. 
Try  to  think  of  new,  good  ways  of  expressing  your 
meaning.  Drop  your  old  hack-phrases  and  get  new, 
natural  ones.  Spend  several  hours  in  writing  one  letter 
in  different  ways.  Choose  the  best  ways — not  one,  but 
several.  Then  take  up  another  letter  of  the  same  class, 
and  work  on  that  very  slowly.  Eefer  to  any  good 
models  you  may  have  at  hand,  to  any  correspondence  you 
may  receive  of  this  kind. 

Make  one  really  good  letter. 

104 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  105 


With  this  good  model  in  your  mind  you  can  vary  in  a 
multitude  of  ways  in  your  dictation  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment,  tho  without  making  any  essential  or  very  im- 
portant change ;  and  if  the  model  is  good,  the  variations 
can  be  made  correctly  tho  quickly. 

Then  take  up  another  class  of  letters  and  master  that. 

But  master  one  kind  of  letter  at  a  time — take  a  week 
for  it  if  necessary.  A  great  deal  of  time  spent  in  prep- 
aration of  this  kind  will  save  vastly  more  time  in  the 
routine  of  your  work,  and  you  can  compose  in  a  few 
seconds  a  letter  just  as  good  as  if  you  spent  a  day  over 
it.  The  chances  are,  indeed,  that  when  you  are  once 
fully  prepared,  you  will  write  a  better  letter  if  you 
write  quickly  than  if  you  write  slowly. 

Forms  and  How  to  Use  Them  Successfully 

Demosthenes  had  a  book  containing  forty  or  fifty  pero- 
rations suitable  for  any  occasion. 

"We  find  those  form-paragraphs  used  again  and  again 
in  his  greatest  orations. 

He  studied  until  he  found  the  very  best  possible  way 
of  saying  a  certain  thing,  or  several  good  ways,  and  then 
he  stuck  to  them. 

Form-Sentences 

Do  not  attempt  to  write  form-letters  in  ordinary  cor- 
respondence. 

Use  form-sentences. 

Study  carefully  the  easy  and  natural  ways  of  saying 
some  of  the  things  you  have  to  say  often.  Find  two  or 
three  ways  of  saying  the  same  thing.  Improve  those 
forms  whenever  you  can. 

Then  use  them  judiciously. 

Beware  of  falling  into  a  rut.    Don't  use  the  form 


106        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


because  it  is  a  form  and  easy;  use  it  because  in  that 
form  you  have  found  the  best  possible  way  of  saying 
what  you  have  to  say.  That  is  why  Demosthenes  used 
his  form-paragraphs. 

When  to  Use  a  Form-Letter 

If  you  have  a  large  number  of  inquiries,  all  just  alike, 
it  would  be  folly  to  do  otherwise  than  follow  the  best 
possible  reply  that  you  can  devise  with  the  most  careful 
study.    Get  a  form  and  let  the  typewriter  copy  it. 

If  you  have  a  large  number  of  inquiries  all  just  alike 
except  for  the  addition  of  some  slight  question,  begin  or 
end  your  letter  by  giving  the  special  information,  and  in 
the  rest  of  the  letter  follow  your  form. 

When  you  write  a  circular  letter  to  persons  you  have 
never  heard  from  or  can  not  distinguish,  divide  those 
persons  into  classes  according  to  profession,  habits,  or 
education  and  position  in  the  world,  and  write  an  en- 
tirely separate  form-letter  for  each  class,  adapting  that 
letter  to  the  class  just  as  carefully  as  you  would  to  an 
individual. 

When  Not  to  Use  Form-Letters 

Never  use  form-letters  in  writing  to  persons  you  know 
are  different,  whose  letters  to  you  differ  ever  so  slightly, 
or  who  will  feel  somehow  that  you  are  putting  them  in  a 
wide  class.  The  only  good  form-letter  is  the  one  which 
each  reader  will  think  was  a  carefully  planned  letter  to 
him  alone  of  all  the  people  in  the  world. 

Learn  to  Freshen  Your  Letters 

Letters  as  well  as  advertising  need  to  be  freshened 
occasionally,  and  freshened  in  a  radical  way.  It  is  not 
enough  that  the  same  customer  does  not  get  a  particular 
form-letter  twice.    If  letters  are  always  worded  in  the 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  107 


same  general  style,  written  on  a  letter-head  that  has  long 
been  familiar,  and  carry  the  same  general  arguments, 
they  are  not  going  to  have  their  maximum  of  success. 

It  is  impossible  for  one  man  to  invent  many  different 
styles,  and  when  you  want  a  new  style  it  is  advisable  to 
get  a  new  man  to  do  it. 

While  one  letter-head  used  year  in  and  year  out,  so 
that  it  is  an  established  trade-mark,  is  a  good  thing  for 
all  routine  business,  soliciting  letters  should  be  sent  out 
on  a  constantly  changing  style  of  paper  and  printing. 
Vary  the  color  and  quality  of  the  paper,  the  arrange- 
ment and  design  of  the  type,  and  provide  a  new  but 
characteristic  design  or  cut.  The  changes  need  not  be 
great ;  but  the  impression  of  the  whole  should  be  fresh. 

No  mistake  could  be  greater  than  to  abandon  a  well- 
composed  literary  form.  Phrases  worked  out  with  great 
difficulty  and  tested  by  success  should  not  be  discarded 
without  careful  consideration.  Change  is  desirable,  but 
it  should  not  be  too  radical.  Indeed,  if  one  has  worked 
out  a  dozen  good  ways  of  putting  a  thing,  those  dozen 
ways  may  be  combined  in  thousands  of  styles,  and  the 
fresh  combination  is  a  fresh  letter. 

And  after  one  good  form  has  been  used  till  it  grows 
stale  and  is  laid  aside,  one  may  often  return  to  it  after  a 
time  with  great  success.  Every  good  letter  and  advertis- 
ing form  should  be  kept  in  a  file  for  constant  and  ready 
reference,  and  the  good  things  that  have  been  done 
should  be  often  reviewed  that  nothing  of  value  be  lost 
till  it  is  completely  exhausted,  if  that  time  ever  comes. 
At  the  same  time,  a  man  with  brains  must  be  constantly 
behind  every  set  of  forms  or  they  will  certainly  lose 
their  potency. 

When  a  series  of  form-letters  have  been  sent  out  to  a 
list  of  persons  who  ought  to  give  good  business  but  have 
failed  to  do  so,  it  is  well  to  sit  down  and  dictate  to  each 


108        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


person  on  that  list  an  original  letter  even  if  it  is  not  as 
good  as  the  regulation  form.  A  remark  or  two  may  be 
written  by  hand  at  the  bottom  or  the  side,  and  the 
signature  should  always  be  in  the  handwriting  of  the 
dictator,  even  if  a  firm  name  is  signed. 

Variation  in  the  general  appearance  of  letters  may  be 
secured  by  using  different  typewriters  and  sizes  of  type, 
and  different  colors  of  typewriter  ribbons. 

But  the  power  behind  all  these  efforts  at  variation  is 
the  restless,  resistless,  energetic,  and  determined  man.  A 
prize-fighter  may  receive  a  blow  over  the  heart  and  not 
be  affected  by  it,  or  a  blow  over  the  eye,  or  in  the  pit  of 
the  stomach ;  but  let  him  get  all  those  different  blows  in 
succession,  from  a  man  who  takes  him  wherever  he 
seems  to  be  weak,  and  after  awhile  he  will  succumb. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  customer.  He  may  not  yield  to 
solicitation  on  this  argument,  or  on  that,  or  on  some 
other ;  but  he  may  yield  on  all  combined,  put  forth  by  a 
man  who  is  never  weary. 

It  takes  energy  and  hard  work  to  write  continually 
fresh  letters.  Nothing  is  harder  than  originality  main- 
tained at  high  pressure.  But  it  is  for  work  of  that  kind 
that  a  man  is  paid ;  and  he  is  usually  paid  according  to 
tliQ  amount  of  work  he  does. 

System  in  Freshening  Publicity 

Even  if  an  enormous  amount  of  advertising  and  letter- 
writing  is  being  done,  each  new  advertisement  and  each 
new  soliciting  circular-letter  is  an  experiment.  The  wise 
man  will  have  a  series  of  experiments  in  hand  all  the 
time.  He  will  get  up  a  new  letter  or  a  new  advertise- 
ment every  week  and  will  put  it  out  where  he  can  test  it. 
He  will  watch  it  with  the  greatest  care,  continually 
checking  up  results.  The  failures  he  will  drop.  The 
successes  he  will  have  in  readiness  for  a  new  campaign. 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  109 


He  will  never  go  into  a  large  campaign  with  that  which 
has  not  been  thoroughly  tested,  any  more  than  a  rail- 
road company  would  build  a  new  bridge  with  steel  that 
had  not  been  tested  because  they  had  built  one  bridge 
and  found  it  all  right. 

If  you  are  promoting  business  in  any  way,  see  that 
your  testing  department  is  always  busy. 

This  form-paragraph  system  is  peculiarly  applicable 
to  complaint-letters. 

Complaint-Letters 

One  of  the  most  important  kinds  of  letters  in  all 
branches  of  business  is  the  letter  answering  complaints 
made  by  customers,  and  this  subject  may  well  be  en- 
larged upon  and  illustrated  at  some  length  here. 

All  such  letters  should  be  extremely  polite,  friendly, 
and  soothing. 

A  correspondent  in  the  claim-department  of  a  rail- 
road company  once  said  to  his  manager,  '^That  man 
makes  me  so  angry  I  don't  know  what  to  do  with  my- 
self.'' 

**You  are  paid,"  said  the  manager,  *Ho  sit  and  take 
such  irritating  letters  as  his,  and  act  as  if  you  really 
enjoyed  them." 

The  man  who  was  so  irritating  said  afterward  he  sent 
his  large  business  over  that  line  because  they  were 
always  so  good-natured  he  really  had  no  excuse  to  take 
it  away. 

A  Poor  Answer  to  a  Letter  of  Complaint 

A  customer  writes:  '^More  than  a  month  ago  I  sent 
you  $2  for  a  set  of  Smart's  books  on  English.  After 
two  weeks  I  had  heard  nothing,  and  wrote  to  you.  In 
reply  to  that  letter  I  had  one  from  you  saying  you 
would  trace  the  books,  and  if  they  were  lost  you  would 


110        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


send  me  another  set.  I  have  heard  nothing  since.  Now 
you've  got  my  money,  and  I  have  nothing.  Unless  you 
either  send  the  books  or  return  my  money  immediately 
I  shall  refer  the  matter  to  my  lawyer. 

(Letter-head)  Coventry,  Jan.  2,  1919. 

Mr.  John  Eoche, 

Norwich,  Conn. 
Dear  Sir : 

Your  letter  of  the  29th  ult.  surprizes  us  somewhat. 
You  must  know  that  sometimes  goods  go  astray,  even 
when  the  greatest  possible  care  is  taken.  Besides,  our 
responsibility  ends  the  moment  we  deliver  the  goods 
to  the  post-office  and  get  our  receipt.  If  you  have  a 
friend  in  the  city  and  he  will  call,  he  can  see  our  receipt 
from  the  post-office  at  any  time.  As  a  matter  of  ac- 
commodation to  our  customers,  however,  we  always  do 
what  we  can  to  locate  goods  that  go  astray,  and  in  case 
of  loss  assist  in  making  claim.  If  you  doubt  our  re- 
sponsibility or  standing,  you  may  write  to  the  Com- 
mercial Bank  of  this  city,  to  whom  we  refer  by  per- 
mission. 

We  send  you  another  set  of  books,  however,  and 
would  ask  you  kindly  to  notify  us  if  the  first  set  turns 
up  later. 

Trusting  we  may  be  favored  with  your  patronage  in 
the  future,  we  remain 

Yours  truly, 

Barwell  &  Barton. 
However  cantankerous  a  customer  may  be,  whatever 
mean  things  he  may  say,  whatever  provoking  insinu- 
ations he  may  make,  no  wise  business  man  will  allow 
even  the  tone  of  his  letter  to  be  affected  in  the  least 
degree.  In  writing  to  that  customer  he  will  employ  the 
same  terms  of  warm  cordiality,  and  show  the  same 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  111 


sympathetic  interest  as  in  the  case  of  a  mild  complaint 
from  his  most  intimate  personal  friend. 

Indeed,  it  is  when  a  customer  is  irritated  that  you 
need  to  use  your  utmost  powers  of  soothing  sympathy. 
Nothing  is  more  effective  than  to  say  that  the  writer 
will  give  the  matter  his  immediate  personal  attention, 
and  act  precisely  as  he  would  if  a  friend  had  suffered. 

The  Same  Letter  Rewritten 

Jan.  2,  1919. 

Mr.  John  Roche, 
Norwich,  Conn. 
Dear  Sir: 

We  are  exceedingly  sorry  and  greatly  surprized  to 
see  by  your  letter  of  the  29th  ult.  that  you  have  not  yet 
received  the  set  of  Mr.  Smart's  books  which  you  ordered 
so  long  ago.  You  certainly  have  been  most  patient  to 
wait  so  long,  and  we  quite  understand  your  feeling  in 
the  matter — indeed,  we  should  feel  precisely  as  you  do 
were  we  in  your  position. 

"We  trust,  however,  that  you  will  not  hold  us  respon- 
sible in  this  particular  case.  The  receipt  we  hold  shows 
that  the  books  were  promptly  dispatched  by  parcel-post 
on  receipt  of  your  order.  We  try  to  forward  the  same 
day  the  order  is  received.  It  sometimes  happens  that 
the  post-office  is  remiss,  and  many  shippers  hold  that 
their  responsibility  ceases  the  moment  the  goods  are 
turned  over  to  the  post-office.  We,  however,  always  con- 
sider the  interests  of  the  customer  as  our  own  until  he 
has  actually  received  the  goods  in  good  condition,  and 
found  them  to  be  entirely  satisfactory. 

We  are  sending  you  to-day  another  set  of  books.  If 
the  set  first  dispatched  should  turn  up,  we  beg  that  you 
will  notify  m  and  we  will  forward  postage  for  its  return. 


112        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Thanking  you  for  your  patience  and  courtesy  in  this 
matter,  we  are 

Very  truly  yours, 

Barwell  &  Barton. 

Assignment  XIV.  Form-Letters 

Thinking  of  the  business  which  we  have  been  analyz- 
ing, while  we  study  the  Form-Chart  for  Complaints  on 
page  113,  let  us  first  consider  one  by  one  whether 
these  paragraphs  apply  to  that  business.  Such  as  do 
not  may  be  checked  off.  Then  for  each  paragraph  let 
us  write  from  the  customer  such  a  letter  of  complaint 
as  that  paragraph  might  be  an  answer  to,  mentioning 
some  specific  goods  and  making  the  letter  complete  in 
every  respect.  Finally,  let  us  use  the  paragraph  in  a 
complete  letter  properly  answering  the  complaint.  Only 
one  letter  under  each  of  the  five  headings  may  be  writ- 
ten, if  that  seems  desirable. 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE 


113 


^l^l^sll  isi^ia^a  ^^---i 

|!  liiii  111! 


'♦^oS  "^Sloflciaj"^^        +-'0)       IS        oifl  P  f 


g"s^sla    &^.a^^  Ills 

lliii||t|iiiii:i|ipf^li^ 


*    Sssag^  .asai  s?§^^|  .sslllisisl  |||| 


^  0) 


^  ^^11  ^'^l  Sgg"^    r^^S  ^§a£^ 


,  »r— irrlSj-i-J       ..ncC         .i^«4_it^         "^^^■lO.  T?'T!.^ii..  rr,      Ti  ^r. 


Practise  Assignment 


ILLUSTRATIVE  STUDY  OF  THE  GROCERY 
BUSINESS 

(The  grocery  business  is  here  studied  in  a  way  to  illustrate 
how  any  business  may  be  taken  up,  and  two  or  three  weeks  might 
well  be  spent  on  this  model  by  way  of  practise  even  if  an  entirely 
different  business  is  to  be  studied.  First,  we  must  study  one  item 
of  goods  at  a  time,  the  most  typical  of  the  business,  until  we  see 
what  questions  customers  will  ask  about  it,  and  how  those  questions 
should  be  answered.  Then  we  will  take  another  item,  and  so  on. 
Each  query  will  first  be  answered  orally,  and  then  in  a  letter  as 
if  it  came  by  mail.  Out  of  the  general  letter-writing  will  come 
circular  letters,  which  in  turn  will  be  expanded  into  booklets  or 
condensed  into  advertisements.) 

Learning  to  do  Business 

It  is  impossible  to  teach  business  in  general — we  must  know 
one  business,  no  matter  what,  if  we  are  to  learn  how  to  apply 
the  general  principles  of  business  management. 

Success  depends  on  exact  knowledge  of  goods,  exact  knowledge 
of  customers,  and  a  simple,  tactful,  energetic,  common-sense 
handling  of  these  business  facts.  Generalities  in  business  breed 
vagueness,  and  vagueness  in  business  is  the  chief  cause  of  failure. 
The  only  way  to  escape  from  the  degenerating  influence  of  super- 
ficial vagueness  is  to  study  some  one  business  at  first  hand — learn 
business  by  doing  real  business  if  possible,  or  at  any  rate  study- 
ing a  real  business. 

The  Grocery  Business  Open  to  all 

As  we  all  have  to  eat,  every  mother  of  a  family  must  be  a  buyer 
of  foods,  and  any  school-child  can  go  out  and  ask  his  mother 
the  fine  points  on  groceries.  No  doubt  the  mother,  if  set  system- 
atically to  study  the  subject,  can  learn  a  good  deal,  too.  Then, 
at  every  corner  there  is  a  grocery  store  at  which  students  may 
call  and  make  first-hand  observations,  and  get  their  questions 
answered.    Any  scientific  suggestions  on  advertising  which  they 

114 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  115 


may  offer  ought  to  be  appreciated  by  the  grocer  who  wants  to 
get  the  business  from  his  competitors,  as  any  grocer  easily  can 
do  if  he  knows  how  to  advertise  scientifically,  as  well  as  how  to 
buy  good  groceries  at  right  prices. 

Success  also  depends  on  studying  competition,  and  the  mail- 
order '^Grocery  Lists''  of  Sears,  Eoebuck  &  Co.  and  Mont- 
gomery Ward  &  Co.,  with  which  all  grocers  have  to  compete,  are 
available  for  the  asking,  and  these  give  a  complete  text  on  the 
grocery  business,  including  all  the  salesmanship  that  produces  a 
large  volume  of  orders,  tho,  since  it  represents  the  competition, 
students  can  not  copy  a  word  of  it,  but  nevertheless  can  see  what 
they  must  equal  and  offset  by  better  arguments. 

Method  of  Study 

All  pupils  should  provide  themselves  with  mail-order  grocery 
lists,  which  may  be  had  for  the  asking  on  a  post-card. 

All  inquiries  of  customers  should  first  be  answered  orally  by 
way  of  practise  on  oral  salesmanship  and  preparation  for  written 
salesmanship.  Parallel  models  and  Exercises  for  the  written 
salesmanship  will  be  found  in  the  preceding  pages  of  this  book. 

Supplementary  Study  of  Clothing  and  Furniture  Business 

Next  to  the  grocery  business,  the  most  open  to  universal  obser- 
vation are  the  clothing  and  furniture  businesses,  in  which  the  same 
general  principles  of  merchandising  must  be  applied  in  a  slightly 
different  way. 

Systematic  Study  of  Human  Nature 

Eeal  salesmanship  depends  on  handling  different  kinds  of 
customers  on  a  basis  of  thorough  understanding  of  practical 
business  psychology. 

The  greater  part  of  this  w^ork  must  therefore  be  devoted  to 
exercises  on  different  methods  of  appeal  to  different  kinds  of 
people.  The  lady,  the  busy  business  man,  the  farmer,  the  reason- 
able and  easy-going  customer,  the  irritable  customer — all  need 
to  be  handled  differently,  and  the  pupil  needs  prolonged  practise 
on  adjusting  his  manner  to  human  nature  conditions.  Such 
practise  is  perhaps  the  most  effective  possible  preparation  for  real 
success  in  life  in  every  department,  whether  business,  professional, 
or  public. 


116        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Training  for  the  Private  Secretary  on  How  to  Manage  a 
Business 

Every  stenographer,  every  bookkeeper,  every  clerk  is  an  assist- 
ant to  the  general  manager,  and  advancement  depends  directly 
on  increased  knowledge  of  how  to  relieve  the  manager  of 
responsibilities,  how  to  do  more  and  more  things  that  would 
otherwise  have  to  be  done  by  the  manager  himself  or  some  one 
higher  up.  When  the  stenographer  begins  to  understand  how  to 
manage  a  business,  how  to  be  a  little  substitute  manager,  she  is 
made  a  private  secretary,  she  gets  an  advance  in  salary;  w^hen 
the  bookkeeper  or  clerk  learns  more  about  managing  a  business, 
he  is  made  an  assistant  manager  or  a  department  manager. 
Salesmanship,  advertising,  systematizing — are  all  merely  phases 
of  the  broad  general  subject  of  How  to  Deal  With  Human 
Nature  so  as  to  Get  Eesults,  How  to  Manage  a  Business  Efficiently 
and  Economically,  How  to  Succeed. 

A  Foundation  Course  for  All  Business  Workers 

This  systematic  study  of  business  in  all  its  phases  and  branches 
—of  the  VITAL  ELEMENTS  AT  THE  BOTTOM  OF  ALL 
BUSINESS  SUCCESS— should  be  the  foundation  work  of  all 
girls  and  all  boys,  all  men  and  all  women.  It  is  the  real  KEY 
TO  SUCCESS  IN  BUSINESS.  Study  of  the  grocery  business, 
the  clothing  business,  the  furniture  business,  is  nothing  in  itself — 
but  knowing  something  about  how  to  conduct  these  is  the  best 
possible  preparation  for  being  a  successful  doctor  or  lawyer,  for 
example,  a  good  railway  clerk,  an  efficient  government  consul,  or 
even  a  good  wife.  We  offer  here  the  broadest  possible  training 
for  practical  success  as  an  American  in  any  walk  of  life. 

EXERCISE  1. 

All  pupils  should  be  provided  with  a  grocery  list,  or  printed 
catalog  of  groceries,  such  as  may  be  had  from  any  of  the  mail- 
order houses  on  post-card  request. 

Subject,  SUGAR.  What  are  ''granulated,''  ''loaf,''  ''pow- 
dered," "brown,"  "cane,"  "beet,"  and  "H.  &  E."  (Have- 
meyer  &  Elder)  sugars? 

What  kind  of  sugar  is  sold  at  retail  at  about  wholesale  cost? 
Get  from  the  local  grocer  his  price-list  of  sugars. 

What  kind  of  sugar  is  needed  for  making  jelly?    For  icing 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  117 


cake?  For  coffee  or  tea?  For  general  table  use?  For  cooking, 
as  making  brown  bread  or  fruit-pudding? 

After  a  careful  reading  of  Chapter  I,  ^  *  The  Conversational 
Style  in  Letter- Writing, ' '  open  ^^How  to  Deal  with  Human 
Nature  in  Business''  to  page  82,  ''An  Illustrative  Chain  of 
Letters,"  and  study  out  for  yourself  a  plan  for  dealing  with  an 
inquiry  from  a  customer  in  regard  to  sugar,  considering  especially 
how  you  would  make  a  difference  between  an  oral  reply  and  a 
written  letter. 

EXEECISE  2 

The  Customer's  Inquiry 

Addressed  to  H.  E.  Harriman,  Wideawake  Grocery,  corner 
Blank  and  Blank  Streets,  your  Town  and  State  (fill  in  actual 
street-s  and  towns  when  you  write). 

What  is  your  lowest  price  on  sugar?  Will  it  make  jelly?  Is 
it  clear?    Have  you  a  powdered  sugar  free  from  chalk? 

Oral  Sales-Talk 

Give  the  salesman  full  information  as  you  have  learned  it 
above  and  explain  that  sugar  gets  dirty  because  dipt  out  of  a 
barrel,  as  it  is  sold  in  small  quantities,  while  Mr.  Harriman, 
immediately  after  opening  a  barrel,  puts  all  the  sugar  into  dust- 
proof  paper  bags  in  pound,  five-pound,  ten-pound,  and  dollar-size 
bags,  so  he  can  absolutely  guarantee  its  cleanliness.  The  best 
bargain  he  can  offer  is  ....  lbs.  of  best  granulated  cane-sugar 
for  a  dollar  with  an  order  for  two  dollars'  worth  of  other 
groceries.    Freedom  from  adulteration  guaranteed. 

Explain  this  in  a  pleasant  tsales-talk,  supposing  the  teacher  is 
the  customer  who  has  just  entered  the  store  and  made  the  inquiry, 
and  try  to  effect  a  sale  of  a  dollar's  worth  of  sugar  with  a  two- 
dollar  order  for  other  groceries.  Make  the  talk  as  short  as 
possible,  yet  get  in  the  strongest  possible  arguments  in  an  easy, 
conversational  tone. 

EXEECISE  3 

Letter  Answering  Inquiry 

Write  the  price-list  of  sugars  on  a  little  slip  of  paper  to  be 
enclosed  with  your  letter,  and  then  write  a  letter  in  reply  to  a 
customer's  inquiry  as  indicated  above,  making  in  writing  the 


118        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


same  sales-effort  to  get  an  order  for  one  dollar's  worth  of  sugar 
with  two  dollars'  worth  of  other  groceries,  without  in  any  way 
checking  a  possible  purchase  of  smaller  amounts  at  the  list  prices. 

EXEECISE  4 
The  Order 

The  customer  would  like  to  order  a  dollar's  worth  of  sugar 
at  the  special  price  quoted,  but  does  not  know  what  to  order  in 
addition. 

Oral  Sales-Talk 

Find  out  what  are  the  commonest  groceries  required  in  all 
households,  and  in  a  pleasant  sales-talk  suggest  to  the  customer 
how  he  may  make  up  the  general  order  amounting  to  two  dollars 
required  to  secure  the  special  low  price  on  a  dollar's  worth  of 
sugar.  Get  the  exact  current  prices  on  whatever  you  suggest,  and 
be  sure  you  suggest  only  common  things  every  one  would  be  likely 
to  need  and  about  which  no  special  sales-talk  might  be  required, 

EXEECISE  5 

Letter  Acknowledging  the  Order 

Studying  the  form  on  page  84  of  ''How  to  Deal  with  Human 
Nature  in  Business,"  write  an  acknowledgment  of  the  order  for 
a  dollar's  worth  of  sugar  as  indicated  above,  and  suggest  a  list 
of  common  articles,  with  exact  prices,  out  of  which  the  order 
for  two  dollars'  worth  of  other  groceries  may  be  made  up. 

We  will  suppose  deliveries  are  free  and  customers  have  charge- 
accounts  when  they  write,  or  pay  cash  when  they  come  to  the  store. 

EXERCISE  6 

A  Second  Inquiry 

A  customer  wants  the  finest  kind  of  loaf  sugar,  in  small  tablets , 
a  powdered  sugar  for  icing  that  can  be  guaranteed,  and  the  best 
sugar  for  making  fruit-puddings  and  fruit-cake.  Can  you  guar- 
antee purity? 

Oral  Sales-Talk 

In  this  case  price  is  not  a  consideration,  but  prices  'should  be 
mentioned  incidentally  to  prevent  further  inquiries.  Explain  that 
the  best  loaf  sugar  is  ''Domino/'  put  up  in  sanitary  paper  boxes 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  119 


at  the  refinery,  but  which  costs  a  cent  a  pound  more  than  ordinary 
loaf  sugar.  As  it  is  put  up  in  another  state  and  shipped  as  inter- 
state commerce  it  is  subject  to  the  United  States  Pure  Food  Law. 
Show  on  the  package  the  guaranty  of  purity  under  this  law. 
Show  the  original  package  of  powdered  sugar,  with  the  same 
guaranty.  Try  to  convince  the  customer  that  he  is  taking  abso- 
lutely no  chance  whatever  of  getting  adulterated  goods,  but  do 
not  make  him  suspicious  by  overdoing  it.  Use  a 'firm,  clear  state- 
ment, and  a  certain  amount  of  reserve  in  manner  in  your  sales- 
talk. 

EXERCISE  7 

Letter  Answering  the  Second  Inquiry 

After  studying  the  letters  on  pages  84,  85,  and  86,  write  a 
pleasant  and  complete  reply  to  the  preceding  inquiry,  covering 
all  the  points  made  in  the  oral  sales-talk. 

EXERCISE  8 

Tea  and  Coffee 

The  United  States  is  a  great  coffee-drinking  nation,  as  England 
is  a  great  tea-drinking  nation,  Germany  a  great  beer-drinking 
nation,  and  France  a  great  wine-drinking  nation.  In  the  United 
States  tea  and  coffee  are  usually  sold  together,  but  the  sales 
emphasis  is  on  coffee. 

Read  the  article  on  coffee  in  any  good  encyclopedia,  and  note 
that  most  of  our  coffee  comes  from  Brazil,  and  little  or  none 
from  the  East  Indies  or  Arabia.  ''Mocha  and  Java''  is  there- 
fore merely  a  brand  name  or  general  descriptive  name  for  a 
coffee  supposed  to  resemble  in  flavor  what  real  ''Mocha  and 
Java''  formerly  was.  For  the  most  part  new  brand  names  now 
take  its  place.  "Lipton's  Coffee"  may  be  had  in  cans  like 
"Lipton's  Tea." 

The  points  on  coffee  are  the  plumpness  of  the  berry,  the 
freshness  of  the  roasting,  and  the  care  with  which  the  coffee  is 
roasted  to  just  the  right  point,  and,  back  of  all,  the  age  of  the 
coffee  (the  best  coffee  having  been  kept  a  long  time). 

Note,  also,  that  even  a  very  cheap  coffee  will  yield  a  rich 
coffee  flavor  if  properly  made — that  is,  heated  just  to  or  just 
below  the  boiling  point  and  kept  there  for  half  an  hour  or  so. 


120        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

It  spoils  coffee  to  boil  it  hard.  Coffee  is  made  clear  by  mixing 
part  of  an  egg  with  the  ground  coffee  before  the  water,  which  may 
be  either  cold  or  boiling,  is  poured  on.  When  coffee  is  left  stand- 
ing on  the  grounds  and  then  warmed  up,  it  is  spoiled.  Coffee 
that  is  a  little  over-roasted  is  disagreeable.  Tho  coffee  is  sold 
in  the  berry  or  ground,  it  is  always  better  to  grind  the  coffee 
fresh  each  time  just  before  making. 

EXEECISE  9 
The  Inquiry 

I  have  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  getting  good  coffee.  What 
can  you  recommend  as  the  very  best? 

Oral  Sales-Talk  on  the  Best  Coffee 

Find  out  what  canned  coffee  is  most  widely  used  in  your 
locality  (perhaps  Lipton's),  and  first  call  attention  to  that.  Then 
try  to  sell  your  own  bulk  coffee  which  you  get  freshly  roasted 
every  other  day,  telling  where  it  comes  from,  describing  the 
plumpness  of  the  berries,  and  stating  its  age.  The  price  of  the 
two  will  be  the  same — perhaps  35  cents. 

EXERCISE  10 

Letter  in  Reply  to  Inquiry 

Give  the  same  sales-talk  in  a  letter,  as  briefly  yet  as  enthu- 
siastically and  convincingly  as  you  can. 

EXERCISE  11 

Letter  Ordering  Goods 

Write  a  letter  placing  an  order  for  an  assortment  of  groceries, 
including  two  kinds  of  sugar,  some  special  tea,  and  some  special 
brand  or  grade  of  coffee.  Indicate  how  shipment  should  be  made, 
how  the  goods  are  to  be  paid  for,  and  precisely  where  they  are 
to  be  sent.  Study  carefully  '^How  to  Deal  with  Human  Nature 
in  Business,''  Chapter  11,  pages  87,  88,  89,  to  the  middle  of 
page  90. 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  121 


EXERCISE  12 

Replying  to  an  Imperfect  Order 

If  a  customer  calls  at  the  store  you  can  ask  questions  and 
gradually  find  out  what  is  wanted.  Let  the  teacher  play  the 
part  of  a  customer  ignorant  of  what  he  or  she  wants,  and  asking 
vaguely  for  coffee. Let  the  pupil  ask  the  necessary  questions, 
or  make  the  necessary  suggestions  to  lead  the  customer  to  a 
proper  sale. 

EXERCISE  13 

Reply  in  a  letter  to  a  vague  order  for  five  pounds  of  coffee, 
a  pound  of  tea,  ten  pounds  of  sugar,  and  enough  other  groceries 
to  make  up  five  dollar's  worth,  a  five-dollar  bill  being  enclosed. 
Study  carefully  ^  *  How  to  Deal  with  Human  Nature  in  Business, ' ' 
pages  90-94,  to  top  of  page  95. 

EXERCISE  14 

An  Inquiry  for  a  Good  Grade  of  Coffee  at  20c. 

A  customer  states  that  he  has  seen  an  advertisement  of  coffee 
at  20c.,  and  wants  to  know  if  it  is  good  coffee. 

Oral  Sales-Talk 

Explain  that  for  advertising  purposes  the  firm  has  specially 
selected  this  coffee,  knows  it  is  roasted  just  right,  and  guarantees 
that  if  it  is  cooked  according  to  directions  it  will  prove  entirely 
satisfactory.  Explain  that  some  people  want  to  pay  the  highest 
price  for  coffee,  and  that  which  looks  a  little  plumper,  is  a  little 
more  uniform,  or  is  a  little  more  carefully  handled  is  picked  out 
and  sold  at  the  higher  price,  but  if  care  is  used  (care  that  co*sts 
nothing)  an  entirely  satisfactory  coffee  can  be  had  for  20c., 
especially  if  it  is  made  strictly  according  to  directions. 

EXERCISE  15 
Letter  to  Sell  an  Advertised  20c.  Coffee 

Supposing  the  inquiry  in  Exercise  14  came  by  mail,  make  the 
explanation  suggested  in  the  Oral  Sales-Talk  and  also  suggest 
that  to  reduce  transportation  charges  it  will  be  advisable  to  send 
an  order  for  any  other  groceries  that  may  be  needed,  such  as 
(mention  common  articles  always  needed). 


122        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


EXERCISE  16 

A  Follow-Up  Letter 

If  at  the  end  of  ten  days  no  order  has  been  received  in  reply 
to  the  preceding,  write  a  follow-up  letter,  briefly  but  sharply 
emphasizing  the  sales-points  already  stated. 

EXERCISE  17 

Second  Letter  of  Inquiry 

In  reply  to  the  follow-up  letter  referred  to  in  the  preceding 
exercise  the  customer  writes  to  say  that  he  would  be  willing  to 
try  five  pounds  if  Mr.  Harriman  will  give  a  positive  guaranty 
that  it  will  be  satisfactory,  and  will  refund  transportation  charges 
both  ways  in  case  it  is  not;  and  to  make  up  a  good  shipment  he 
will  send  an  order  for  flour,  salt,  canned  tomatoes,  canned  corn, 
canned  beans,  and  dried  apricots,  if  prices  are  quoted.  Answer 
this  letter,  giving  the  desired  guaranty  with  a  second  explanation 
of  why  the  coffee  ought  to  be  good,  but  laying  special  emphasis 
on  the  condition  of  guaranty  that  the  method  of  making  shall  be 
as  directed.  Also  quote  prices  on  the  articles  mentioned — actual 
prices  furnished  by  some  grocer  or  taken  from  some  current  price- 
list.    See  page  97. 

EXERCISE  18 
The  Order 

Write  a  letter  containing  the  order,  specifying  how  the  goods 
are  to  be  shipped,  where,  and  when,  and  state  how  payment  will 
be  made.  This  letter  will  be  from  the  customer  to  the 
house  in  reply  to  the  offer  made  in  the  preceding  exercise,  and 
the  guaranty  on  the  coffee  should  be  repeated  in  the  order. 

EXERCISE  19 
Complaint 

The  customer  calls  up  on  the  telephone  to  say  that  the  goods 
have  not  been  received,  and  they  must  come  to  hand  at  once  or 
he  will  withdraw  and  cancel  the  order. 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  123 


Oral  Sales-Talk 

Explain  in  a  pleasant  tone  of  voice  that  it  takes  time  to  pack 
up  such  an  order,  time  to  get  it  on  the  wagon,  which  is  not  always 
just  starting  out,  and  time  to  deliver  it;  but  undoubtedly  it  is 
on  the  way  and  will  be  received  in  a  very  short  time. 

EXERCISE  20 

Answering  Complaint  by  Letter 

Supposing  the  same  complaint  comes  by  letter,  the  goods 
having  been  sent  by  express.  Explain  that  the  express  company 
calls  with  its  wagon  only  once  a  day,  the  goods  went  out  on  the 
first  express  call  after  the  order  was  received,  and  very  likely 
they  will  already  have  come  to  hand  when  this  letter  gets  to  the 
customer. 

EXERCISE  21 

Customer  Dissatisfied 

A  few  days  later  the  customer  explains  that  the  coffee  is  no 
good  and  wants  his  money  refunded  with  transportation  charges 
both  ways,  saying  he  will  send  back  all  the  groceries  ordered. 

Oral  Sales-Talk 

Supposing  the  customer  calls  at  the  store  and  makes  the  com- 
plaint, in  a  very  irritated  and  aggressive  tone,  begin  by  asking 
how  the  coffee  was  made,  if  it  was  boiled,  and  if  boiled  about 
how  long  it  was  boiled.  The  customer  may  reply  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  make  coffee  on  a  gas-stove  without  boiling  it  hard, 
and  he  wouldn't  have  any  coffee  that  had  to  be  made  in  an 
impossible  way.  In  reply  to  this  (which  the  teacher  should  put 
forth  as  representative  of  the  customer),  suggest  that  on  nearly 
all  gas-stoves  there  is  a  very  small  burner  with  only  three  tongues 
of  flame,  and  as  soon  as  the  coffee  boils  up  it  can  be  set  over 
this  small  burner  turned  quite  low  and  left  there  for  half  an 
hour  without  boiling.  Or  an  asbestos  lid  may  be  placed  over  an 
ordinary  burner  and  the  gas  turned  rather  low.  No  doubt  on 
the  trial  the  coffee  was  over-boiled,  a  very  hard  thing  to  avoid, 
but  a  very  important  thing.  Call  attention  to  the  fact  that  fire- 
less  cookers  will  cook  anything  simply  by  the  heat  in  the  dish 
which  has  once  come  to  a  boil;  and  that  shows  that  we  do  not 


124       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


need  as  much  heat  to  cook  food  or  make  coffee  as  we  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  supposing.  Ask  the  customer  if  he  will  not  try 
this  suggestion. 

EXEECISE  22 

Answering  a  Letter  of  Complaint 

If  this  complaint  comes  by  letter  it  will  not  be  possible  to  ask 
questions;  but  supposing  you  can  guess  what  the  trouble  is, 
deftly  suggest  in  your  letter  what  may  be  done,  why  it  would  be 
a  good  thing  to  make  another  test,  and  yet  reassert  that  the 
company  will  live  fully  up  to  its  guaranty  if  necessary. 

EXERCISE  23 

Study  carefully  Chapter  III  on  the  use  of  form-sentences  and 
paragraphs. 

Rewrite  the  letters  called  for  in  Exercise  3,  Exercise  5,  and 
Exercise  7,  making  the  fullest  possible  use  of  the  following  form- 
sentences  to  strengthen  your  work: 

Beet-sugar  will  not  make  jelly.  There  are  other  objections 
to  it.  That  is  why  we  do  not  handle  it  at  all.  We  supply  only 
the  very  best  granulated  cane-sugar,  which  we  buy  direct  from 
the  refinery.'' 

'^Cleanliness  is  one  of  the  most  important  points  in  all  grocery 
buying.  You  are  not  intentionally  buying  a  supply  of  filth  and 
germs  dangerous  to  health.  Yet  that  is  just  what  you  get  from 
the  grocer  who  shovels  out  your  sugar  from  a  barrel  as  you 
order  it,  often  with  dirty  hands.  Anyway,  think  of  the  dust  and 
germs  from  the  air  that  can  not  help  getting  into  an  open  barrel ! 

''We  take  our  sugar,  as  soon  as  we  receive  the  barrels,  directly 
into  a  clean  storeroom.  The  clerk  in  charge  thoroughly  washes 
his  hands  with  soap  and  water.  Then  he  transfers  all  the  sugar 
immediately  into  pound,  five-pound,  ten-pound,  and  twenty-five- 
pound  dust-proof,  moisture-proof,  germ-proof  paper  bags,  which 
are  all  ready  to  hand  out  to  the  customer  whenever  he  places 
his  order.  Do  you  know  any  other  grocer  who  takes  as  much 
pains  as  the  doctor  does  when  he  goes  into  the  operating-room? 
How  much  better  is  it  to  have  a  grocer  who  keeps  the  germs 
away  than  to  depend  on  a  doctor  who  is  skilful  in  caring  for  you 
after  you  get  sick ! ' ' 

"We  sell  sugar  at  ABSOLUTELY  COST  PRICE  FROM  THE 


SYSTEM  IN  CORRESPONDENCE  125 


EEFINERY  as  a  means  of  advertising  our  general  grocery 
business.  When  -sugar  is  selling  ordinarily  for  6  cents  a  pound, 
we  sell  20  pounds  for  a  dollar  in  connection  with  an  order  for 
other  groceries  amounting  to  $2  or  over.  You  have  to  have 
salt,  flour,  potatoes,  canned  corn,  canned  tomatoes,  coffee,  tea. 
Our  prices  are  just  as  low  as  you  can  find  anywhere.  Just  con- 
venience us  both  by  including  these  necessities  in  your  order  for 
sugar  and  get  that  greatest  of  all  food  essentials  in  SANITARY 
ORIGINAL  PACKAGES  for  less  than  most  grocers  pay  their 
jobbers.    Won't  you  do  it?'' 

EXERCISE  24 

Rewrite  the  letters  called  for  in  Exercises  10,  15,  and  17,  using 
the  following  paragraphs  or  sentences  whenever  you  can  strengthen 
your  work: 

*'We  handle  Lipton's  Coffee  in  airtight  tin  cans  at  35  cents  a 
pound,  and  we  feel  sure  you  will  find  it  very  satisfactory.  Most 
of  our  customers  prefer  our  own  BEST  COFFEE  at  the  same 
price.  It  has  the  advantage  of  being  freshly  roasted  every  other 
day.  That  keeps  the  flavor  and  especially  the  aroma  at  its  best. 
This  coffee  is  picked  out  by  our  Mr.  Harriman  himself.  We 
know  that  it  is  at  least  three  years  old.  Age  is  required  to  ripen 
coffee.  Not  a  bag  is  accepted  which  is  not  uniform  and  exclusively 
large,  plump  berries,  showing  plainly  those  little  white  flower- 
membrances  that  always  go  with  a  well-developed  coffee.  No 
doubt  you  have  noticed  them  in  some  good  coffee.  Most  grocers 
put  out  as  'best  coffee'  a  mixture  that  admits  more  or  less 
inferior  berries.  Perhaps  they  allow  themselves  to  be  imposed 
on;  but  Mr.  Harriman  refuses  to  let  his  customers  suffer  from 
his  easy-going  temper.  When  he  buys  and  offers  for  sale  the 
'best'  he  insists  on  having  ABSOLUTELY  THE  BEST." 

''Some  people  insist  on  having  the  best,  and  are  quite  willing 
to  pay  whatever  the  best  costs,  even  if  a  slight  superiority  doubles 
the  price.  Our  20-cent  coffee  is  as  good  as  the  average  coffee 
sold  in  this  country,  regardless  of  the  price  charged.  Much 
coffee  called  'best'  is  no  better  in  the  cup.  The  looks  make 
very  little  difference  to  most  people,  and  occasional  small  or 
irregular  berries  do  little  harm  if  the  coffee  is  CAREFULLY 
AND  FRESHLY  ROASTED  EVERY  OTHER  DAY,  and  the 
MAKING  IN  THE  POT  IS  RIGHT." 

"If  you  will  make  your  coffee  EXACTLY  AS  WE  TELIi 


126        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


YOU  TO,  we  will  POSITIVELY  GUAEANTEE  you  will  get  a 
better  coffee-flavor  in  your  morning  cup  from  our  20-cent  coffee 
than  you  ever  have  got  in  the  past  from  a  35-cent  coffee.  It  takes 
time  to  make  good  coffee.  The  Arabs,  those  past-masters  in  coffee- 
making,  will  not  touch  coffee  that  has  not  stood  over  a  low  fire 
for  three-quarters  of  an  hour.  But  it  is  FATAL  TO  BOIL 
COFFEE  hard.'' 

''Here  is  our  recipe  for  making  GOOD  coffee:  Grind  medium, 
not  too  fine;  use  a  tablespoonful  for  each  cup;  mix  enough  for 
six  cups  with  a  third  of  a  raw  egg,  right  in  the  bottom  of  the 
pot,  till  you  have  a  paste  (this  prevents  all  sign  of  muddiness)  ; 
add  cold  water,  measuring  carefully  with  a  cup  and  adding  a 
little  less  than  a  cup  for  the  pot;  bring  to  a  boil,  and  then  let 
the  coffee  stand  for  at  least  half  an  hour  as  nearly  at  the  boiling- 
point  as  possible  without  boiling.  If  you  use  gas,  turn  the  gas 
very  low  and  stand  the  pot  on  an  asbestos  lid.  It  takes  half  an 
hour  to  get  the  flavor  from  under  the  inner  layer  of  the  coffee- 
bean.  ' ' 


IV 


HOW  TO  DEAL  WITH  HUMAN  NATURE  BY 
LETTER 

ONE 

When  to  Write  a  Short  Letter  and  When  a  Long  One 

DON'T  "WRITE  EXACTLY  THE  SAME  KIND 
OF  LETTER  TO  ALL  KINDS  OF  PEOPLE. 

Consider:  Do  you  always  write  a  short  letter  when- 
ever you  can? 

Do  you  have  a  weakness  for  long  letters  ? 

Stop.  The  first  step  toward  system  in  correspon- 
dence'' is  the  ability  to  write  a  long  letter  when  a  long 
letter  is  required,  and  a  short  one  when  a  short  letter 
is  best. 


Write  a  Long  Letter  to: 

A  person  of  leisure. 
A  woman. 

A  customer  who  has 
asked  you  a  question. 

A  customer  who  is  angry 
and  needs  quieting  down, 
and  will  be  made  more 
angry  if  you  seem  to  slight 
him. 

A  man  who  is  interested, 
but  must  be  convinced  be- 
fore he  will  buy  your 
goods. 


Write  a  Short  Letter  to: 

A  busy  business  man. 

An  indifferent  man  on 
whom  you  want  to  make  a 
sharp  impression. 

A  person  who  has  writ- 
ten you  about  a  trivial 
matter  for  which  he  cares 
little. 

A  man  who  wants  only  a 
record  or  a  piece  of  infor- 
mation. 

A  person  who  needs  only 
the  slightest  reminder  of 
something  he  has  forgotten 
or  overlooked. 


127 


128        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Never  write  a  longer  letter  than  you  have  good  reason 
to  believe  will  be  read  all  through.  A  busy  business 
man  will  never  wade  through  a  long  explanation. 

If  the  person  to  whom  you  write  has  plenty  of  time, 
and  wants  to  hear  what  you  have  to  say,  write  as  long 
a  letter  as  your  time  and  brain  will  permit.  Tho  a 
person  may  write  short  letters  because  he  finds  it  hard 
to  write  long  ones,  he  likes  to  get  and  read  long  ones 
that  clearly  state  all  the  matters  he  is  desirous  of  know- 
ing. 

A  woman  will  usually  read  through  the  longest  letter, 
and  likes  a  full  explanation. 

"When  a  customer  writes  for  special  information,  it 
is  discourteous  to  cut  him  off  with  a  short  letter,  and 
the  discourtesy  is  usually  felt  keenly. 

When  a  customer  has  become  very  angry  about  some 
real  or  fancied  wrong,  and  has  given  a  great  deal  of 
time  to  thinking  over  his  troubles,  the  only  hope  of 
keeping  his  business  lies  in  writing  him  a  long,  sym- 
pathetic, heart-to-heart,  frank  talk,  conceding  all  you 
can,  and  doing  your  utmost  to  get  him  into  a  reason- 
able frame  of  mind.    It  will  pay  for  the  special  effort. 

TWO 

How  to  Write  a  Letter  That  Will  Get  Attention 

It  makes  a  great  deal  of  difference  whether  you  are 
writing  to  a  man  who  knows  little  or  nothing  of  you, 
soliciting  him  to  give  you  his  time  and  attention ;  or  to 
one  who  has  written  to  you  for  information.  It  is  one 
thing  to  circularize  a  list  of  names,  and  quite  another 
to  get  orders  from  inquiries  sent  in  response  to  adver- 
tising. 

When  you  circularize  a  list  of  names,  the  first  letter 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  129 


sent  serves  the  purpose  of  the  newspaper  or  magazine 
advertisement.  It  must  above  all  get  attention,  and  get 
it  in  a  very  effective  way,  for  circularizing  is  at  least 
twenty  times  as  costly  as  general  advertising,  and  the 
circular  is  just  about  as  likely  to  be  put  in  the  waste- 
paper  basket  as  the  advertising  pages  to  be  turned  over 
without  being  looked  at. 

A  first  soliciting  letter  must  be  constructed  on  pre- 
cisely the  same  principles  as  an  advertisement :  It  must 
attract  attention;  it  must  fix  the  attention  immediately 
on  something  that  will  correspond  to  a  want  (alive  or 
dormant)  in  the  reader;  it  must  state  clearly  and  con- 
cisely just  what  you  have  to  offer;  it  must  give  some 
proof;  it  must  indicate  the  price  and  the  simple  and 
easy  way  to  get  the  thing  offered. 

The  great  danger  is  that  you  will  say  too  much.  A 
first  letter  should  be  no  longer  than  a  fair  advertisement. 
/  Attention  should  be  attracted  by  color  of  paper,  odd- 
ity of  envelop,  a  beautiful  picture,  especial  neatness, 
high-priced  stationery,  or  the  like.  These  things  take 
the  place  of  display  in  advertising. 

The  attention  should  be  fixt  by  some  strong,  direct, 
personal  appeal  to  some  known  want.  For  example: 
*'Can  you  spell?  I  have  the  only  home-study  spelling- 
book  ever  published,  and  it  gives  results — which  I  dare 
say  is  true  of  nothing  else  you  ever  tried  in  this  line. ' ' 

There  is  nothing  like  frankness  in  explaining  your 
method,  and  just  how  your  medicine  or  your  machine 
or  your  plan  of  instruction  works.  This  should  be  done 
briefly,  but  very  pointedly. 

"While  testimonials  are  generally  enclosed  on  a  sep- 
arate sheet,  the  strongest  indorsement  you  have,  if  it 
exactly  fits  your  customer,  should  be  given  in  the  letter ; 
or  you  may  make  some  general  indorsing  statement, 
calling  attention  to  testimonials. 


130        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Finally,  state  clearly  just  what  you  want  your  cus- 
tomer to  do,  and  arrange  everything  conveniently  and 
to  his  hand,  even  to  providing  a  blank  and  saying, 
''Sign  here."  There  is  nothing  like  making  things 
easy. 

Circular  Letter  Soliciting  Advertising 

(Letter-head  Collier's  Weekly) 

December  31,  1903. 

Dear  Sir: 

Under  separate  cover  I  send  you  a  Remington  art 
calendar,  the  first  of  a  series  for  1904.  Remington's 
work  will  appear  exclusively  in  Collier's  hereafter. 
Please  accept  the  calendar  with  my  best  wishes  for  the 
new  year.  It  is  gratifying,  in  looking  back  over  1903, 
to  note  the  progress  Collier's  has  made.  In  the  first 
place,  Sherlock  Holmes  has  developed  a  great  follow- 
ing. "Winston  Churchill,  the  author  of  ^^The  Crisis" 
and  Richard  Carvel,"  has  been  secured,  serially,  for 
Collier's — something  no  publisher  ever  accomplished 
before. 

Charles  Dana  Gibson,  America's  leading  artist,  draws 
exclusively  for  Collier's  and  one  other  publication. 

Collier's  cameras  and  Collier's  correspondents  have 
been  on  the  spot  where  world-history  was  making. 

The  great  men  in  public  life  have  written  for  Collier's 
of  events  they  themselves  are  making. 

An  editorial  page  unsurpassed  in  its  scope  and  whole- 
someness  has  given  Collier's  readers  a  comprehensive 
view  of  the  best  thought  on  all  subjects  the  active  man 
of  affairs  desires. 

Our  advertising  summaries  show  a  total  approxi- 
mating 400,000  lines  for  the  year.  This  is  a  20  per  cent, 
increase  over  last  year's  business.  It  is  another  step  in 
the  healthy  growth  begun  five  years  ago. 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  131 

May  1904  be  a  year  filled  with  success  for  your  busi- 
ness ! 

With  best  wishes,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

Conde  Nast. 

Notes 

Perhaps  the  most  difficult  subject  on  which  to  write 
a  circular  letter  that  will  get  attention  is  advertisement 
soliciting.  I  get  three  or  four  such  letters  every  day. 
I  glance  at  them  and  throw  them  in  the  waste-paper 
basket.  One  never  thinks  of  answering  a  circular  so- 
liciting letter.  I  have  only  a  certain  amount  of  money 
to  spend  on  advertising,  and  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
pretty  well  where  I  wish  to  place  it.  Now  and  then  a 
canvasser  comes  into  my  office  and  persuades  me  into 
something,  but  the  above  is  the  only  letter  soliciting  ad- 
vertising to  which  I  ever  gave  my  interested  attention. 
It  was  an  imitation  of  typewriting,  on  good  linen  paper, 
with  a  neat,  simple  head  printed  in  green  ink.  The 
letter  was  in  green  type.  The  effect  was  odd,  but 
pleasing.  The  calendar  came  at  the  same  time,  and  was 
worth  having.    That  gift  got  my  attention. 

So  I  read  the  letter.  I  was  interested  in  what  had 
been  done.  The  figures  seemed  to  carry  some  proof 
with  them.  When  I  finished  I  should  have  been  willing 
to  do  something  for  that  man.  But  he  hadn't  asked  me 
to  do  anything,  and  his  letter  did  not  really  convince 
me  that  I  should  place  my  advertising  in  his  medium. 
I  should  have  listened  with  interest  to  any  argument  he 
might  have  presented. 

This  letter  was  very  effective  in  getting  attention,  and 
in  setting  forth  how  the  periodical  was  reaching  its 
readers;  and  it  offered  some  proof  of  advertising  value 


132        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


in  the  number  of  lines  printed  during  the  year  just 
passed ;  but  I  think  it  should  have  done  more  then  and 
there.  Had  I  been  writing  that  letter  I  should  have 
enclosed  a  postal  card  asking  what  advertising  was  con- 
templated for  the  year  to  come,  and  what  classes  of 
people  it  was  especially  desired  to  reach,  also  what  space 
would  most  generally  be  used.  With  that  information, 
an  advertising  manager  might  bring  special  proof  of  re- 
sults secured  by  others  in  that  line,  and  also  proof  that 
the  periodical  went  to  the  class  of  people  the  advertiser 
wished  to  reach.  It  would  have  been  well,  indeed,  to 
give  in  the  letter  itself  at  least  a  line  in  regard  to  the 
class  of  people  who  read  Collier's. 

Most  good  advertising  matter  wins  on  some  one  or  two 
strong  points;  but  if  it  could  be  strong  on  all  points  it 
would  win  more. 

THREE 

How  to  Write  a  Letter  that  Will  Develop  Interest 

Whatever  a  first  letter  does,  it  must  get  the  attention 
of  the  receiver — it  must  make  a  favorable  impression. 
As  the  letter  must  be  brief,  the  interest  may  not  be  very 
deep.  The  susceptible  customer  will  respond  at  once ; 
the  less  susceptible  customer  will  need  to  have  his  in- 
terest developed. 

The  second  letter  should  be  just  like  the  first,  only 
longer,  stronger,  more  detailed.  Try  to  develop  the 
want  and  make  it  alive  by  showing  the  customer  just 
how  much  better  off  he  would  be  if  he  had  the  thing. 
Then  tell  once  more,  and  more  in  detail  just  how  your 
appliance  or  scheme  works,  just  what  it  is.  If  you 
have  three  good  indorsements  in  the  first  letter,  give 
six  or  seven  in  the  second.  Once  more  enclose  blanks 
and  point  out  every  step  necessary  to  be  taken,  in- 
cluding ^^Sign  here." 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  133 


Many  people  are  indolent,  and  much  business  is  lost 
by  making  the  process  of  getting  a  thing  too  long  or 
hard.  The  ideal  way  would  be  to  reduce  the  necessary 
effort  to  that  of  signing  one's  name  to  a  postal  card  and 
dropping  the  card  in  a  letter-box.  The  thing  is  to  get 
a  man  to  decide  while  he  feels  like  it. 

Often  it  is  a  good  thing  to  give  some  inducement  for 
immediate  decision — a  slightly  lower  price,  easier  pay- 
ment, or  some  small  premium.  If  these  are  not  prac- 
ticable, an  argument  for  immediate  action  may  be  in- 
troduced, as  in  the  case  of  soliciting  life  insurance.  It 
is  said  that  almost  any  man  you  meet  on  the  street  will 
say  he  believes  in  insurance,  and  is  going  to  take  some 
out  next  month,  or  next  year,  or  later."  The  thing 
is  to  make  him  decide  now. 

Great  care  should  always  be  taken  never  to  enclose  too 
much  in  a  circular  letter.  Only  one  thing  at  a  time, 
and  not  too  much  of  that!  Your  letter  the  first  time 
may  be  note-paper  size,  typewritten,  double-spaced,  one 
note  page  and  a  few  lines  on  another.  The  indorsements 
may  be  printed  on  the  lower  half  of  the  second  page, 
where  they  can  not  be  missed.  Three  or  four  good  ones 
are  enough.  A  booklet  describing  more  in  detail  how 
the  thing  works,  or  the  story  of  its  development,  may 
be  enclosed  for  those  who  have  leisure  for,  and  want 
more  reading-matter. 

The  second  letter  may  be  single-spaced  full  letter-size, 
with  twice  as  many  testimonials.  It  should  be  the  very 
strongest  argument  you  can  possibly  make.  Your  motto 
in  this  letter  should  be  ^  ^  Now  or  never. ' ' 

Letters  to  Get  Life  Insurance  Business 

One  of  the  most  successful  life  insurance  agents  I 
know  recently  sent  me  a  couple  of  letters  which  appear 
to  me  to  meet  the  two  main  objections  more  squarely  and 


134        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


successfully  than  any  letters  I  ever  saw  before,  and  I 
have  seen  a  large  number.  The  first  is  devoted  to  the 
questions  of  delay — putting  the  matter  oflP.  It  sets  a 
date — May  30.  Pass  that  date,  and  your  neglect  costs 
you  $190. 

Here  is  the  letter. 

Dear  Sir: 

I  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  life 
insurance  the  rate  is  always  figured  at  the  nearest  age, 
that  is,  you  will  be  rated  at  your  present  age  until  six 
months  after  your  birthday;  therefore,  if  my  record  is 
correct,  your  age  changes  on  May  30,  increasing  the  cost 
of  $10,000  insurance  $8  for  every  year  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  policy,  which  aggregates  with  5  per  cent, 
interest  for  the  period  named,  $190. 

This  increased  cost  can  be  saved  by  taking  the  insur- 
ance NOW,  or  before  you  are  rated  one  year  older. 

If  you  are  contemplating  taking  any  insurance,  you, 
of  course,  do  not  care  to  pay  more  than  is  necessary 
when  you  can  secure  it  at  a  less  price  by  acting  now. 

I  enclose  herewith  statistical  statement  on  the  above 
policy. 

Yours  truly. 

The  second  great  objection  to  meet  is,  Can't  afford 
it!''  To  meet  this,  offer  the  cheapest  thing  in  life  in- 
surance that  is  to  be  had.  "When  a  man  says  he  can 
not  afford  it  he  is  usually  thinking  of  a  high-priced 
policy.  If  he  were  confronted  with  an  offer  of  life  in- 
surance at  '^fire  insurance  rates,"  he  would  probably 
be  startled,  and  the  objection  of  cost  would  be  over- 
come as  far  as  it  could  be.  Here  is  a  letter  accompany- 
ing a  statement  in  which  $10,000  insurance  is  offered  for 
$115.  The  clever  argumentative  comparison  to  fire  in- 
surance would  catch  many  a  business  man,  for  most 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  135 


business  men  would  be  horrified  at  the  idea  of  failing 
to  carry  fire  insurance  on  their  buildings  and  stock. 

This  is  the  letter : 
Dear  Sir: 

Term  Life  Insurance  is  now  written  at  practically 
the  same  proportionate  cost  as  is  Fire  Insurance. 

You  would  never  permit  a  valuable  building  to  go  un- 
insured against  loss  by  fire.  Why  should  you  insure  the 
PROPERTY  which  is  the  product  of  your  life-work, 
and  let  the  LIFE  that  produces  the  property  go  un- 
insured? In  event  of  a  fire,  there  is  likely  to  be  a 
partial  loss,  while  your  death  must  be  a  total,  irrepa- 
rable loss  to  your  family. 

I  take  the  liberty  of  enclosing  herewith  a  statement 
for  a  Convertible  Term  Policy  which  I  know  will  prove 
of  interest  to  you,  as  it  has  these  great  advantages: 

1.  It  gives  you  excellent  protection  at  the  very  lowest 
premium. 

2.  It  grants  you  the  option  of  exchanging  the  policy 
at  any  time  for  any  other  contract  issued  by  the  Com- 
pany without  medical  examination. 

3.  It  enables  you  to  exchange  this  policy  within  the 
next  five  or  seven  years  and  secure  the  benefit  of  your 
present  age  and  lower  rate,  giving  you  the  choice  of  any 
other  policy  written  by  the  Company  upon  your  paying 
the  back  difference  in  premiums  with  interest. 

4.  It  gives  you  insurance  temporarily  while  you  are 
deciding  what  permanent  contract  suits  you  best. 

5.  It  secures  approval  of  the  risk  now,  while,  if  de- 
layed, you  might  not  be  able  to  pass  examination. 

The  policy  has  the  very  important  feature  of  being 
paid  in  an  annual  income  to  your  beneficiary  for  a  cer- 
tain number  of  years,  if  you  so  desire. 

I  should  be  pleased  to  make  an  appointment  at  any 


136       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


time  convenient  to  you,  and  discuss  this  matter  more  in 
detail. 

Yours  truly, 

I  believe  that  if  insurance  men  would  concentrate 
upon  these  two  points,  and  persistently  follow  out  this 
course  of  hammering  away  on  the  added  cost  of  every 
year,  figuring  it  out  in  cash,  and  also  persistently  keep 
low-priced  insurance  to  the  fore  till  there  is  an  oppor- 
tunity to  talk  the  higher-priced — they  would  win  in- 
evitably over  the  men  who  spread  themselves  over  the 
whole  subject. 

There  is  another  point  on  which  I  wish  to  give  a  word, 
however.  The  endowment  is  a  favorite  policy,  but  I 
never  saw  a  statement  which  showed  me  just  what  I 
could  expect  to  get.  Most  men  are  a  little  slow  at  fig- 
ures. A  calculation  balks  them.  Everything  should  be 
figured  out  so  that  it  can  be  seen  at  a  glance,  and  no 
calculations,  even  the  most  simple,  should  be  required 
of  the  reader.    Make  a  little  table. 

FOUE 

How  to  Write  a  Letter  That  Will  Compel  an  Answer 

Many  business  men  (most  business  men,  in  fact)  are 
afraid  to  say  anything  irritating  to  a  possible  customer 
for  fear  they  will  frighten  that  customer  away.  But 
scientific  irritation  is  often  one  of  the  most  useful  things 
in  the  world.  There  is  a  large  class  of  men  that  will  re- 
main deaf  to  all  your  arguments,  all  your  testimonials, 
all  your  persistent  hammering,  but  will  respond  to  ju- 
dicious irritation.  I  found  that  out  when  I  was  review- 
ing books  and  wrote  to  publishers  for  review  copies.  It 
was  a  kind  of  advertisement  soliciting.  Often  my 
earnest  requests  were  ignored,  but  very  seldom  my 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  137 


irritating  letters;  and  I  learned  to  write  them  so  that  I 
almost  never  got  a  refusal.  The  publisher  was  slightly 
annoyed ;  but  he  did  what  I  wanted  him  to  do. 

Next  to  the  irritating  method  of  getting  an  answer  is 
that  of  good-humored  persistence,  or  frank  appeal  for 
courtesy  from  man  to  man. 

The  irritating  type:  ^^Dear  Sir:  "Will  you  be  cour- 
teous enough  to  mark  the  enclosed  post-card  and 
return  it.  When  one  man  addresses  another,  even  tho 
unsolicited,  innate  courtesy  would  prompt  an  answer. 

*  ^  To  give  this  answer  honestly  will  require  but  a  small 
effort  on  your  part,  and  I  ask  you  as  a  personal  favor 
to  me  to  grant  this  courtesy." 

The  postal  card  with  this  letter,  self-addrest  of  course, 
may  contain  exactly  the  questions  you  would  like  an- 
swered, as  for  example, 

*^Are  you  in  the  least  degree  interested  in  ?" 

^*Have  you  had  time  to  read  any  of  the  matter  sent 
you?"  '^If  you  are  not  now  in  a  position  to  take  this 
matter  up,  are  you  likely  to  be  at  any  time  in  the 
future?"  ''When,  approximately,  would  you  like  an- 
other copy  of  any  of  the  circulars  sent  you?"  ''Would 
you  like  more  evidence  that  we  have  exactly  the  thing 
for  you?"  ''Do  you  prefer  not  to  be  troubled  further 
in  this  matter  ? ' ' 

The  postal  card  may  be  arranged  to  be  checked,  with 
blank  dotted  lines,  and  the  man's  name  may  even  be 
written  at  the  bottom  of  it,  so  all  he  has  to  do  is  to 
check. 

It  is  important  to  know  when  to  stop  writing  to  a 
possible  customer,  and  in  the  majority  of  cases  about  the 
third  letter  is  the  time  to  find  out.  Only  those  who  in- 
dicate continuing  interest  should  be  followed  up.  It 
will  usually  be  cheaper  to  drop  the  dead  ones  and  look 
for  a  new  and  fresher  list.    In  many  cases  the  money 


138        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


will  be  much  better  spent  in  direct  advertising,  where 
new  inquirers  will  respond  with  fresh  enthusiasm. 

Letters  to  Compel  an  Answer 

A  poor  letter: 

In  writing  an  irritating  letter  to  compel  an  answer  it 
is  important  that  the  greatest  care  be  taken  not  to  be 
discourteous  or  give  any  real  ground  for  offense.  The 
following  letter  was  written  by  an  amateur  who  overdid 
the  matter,  and  succeeded  in  making  an  enemy : 

Dear  Sir: 

There  are  two  kinds  of  men  who  consider  my  propo- 
sition— the  wide-awake  kind  and  the  slow  kind.  The 
wide-awake  man  may  have  reasons  for  not  closing  with 
my  offer;  but  if  he  does  he  knows  what  they  are  and 
states  them  frankly  and  courteously. 

I  have  written  you  several  times,  and  it  would  be 
only  courteous  in  you  to  let  me  know  whether  you  have 
received  my  letters,  and  if  they  have  interested  you.  I 
enclose  a  post-card,  and  I  appeal  to  you  as  a  gentle- 
man to  take  a  few  seconds  to  write  upon  it  your  feelings 
on  the  subject  I  have  been  presenting. 

Truly  yours. 

One  post-card  came  back  with  the  inscription,  ^^My 
feeling  is  that  you  are  an  ass.''  The  reference  to  wide- 
awake and  slow  kinds  of  men  was  a  mistake. 

A  better  method : 

A  simple  device  for  compelling  an  answer  and  one 
which  has  been  proved  to  work  more  often  than  any 
other  is  to  write  a  personal  letter  stating  your  case 
briefly  and  making  a  simple,  courteous,  inoffensive  in- 
quiry concerning  what  you  want  to  know.  Coming  at 
the  end  of  a  series  of  soliciting  letters,  such  a  letter  as 
this  is  not  likely  to  bring  an  answer.    "When  sufficient 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  139 


time  has  elapsed  (ten  days  or  two  weeks)  enclose  a  copy 
of  this  letter  with  the  following : 

Dear  Sir: 

I  enclose  a  copy  of  a  letter  which  I  sent  you  two  weeks 
ago.  I  shall  be  greatly  indebted  to  you  if  you  will  have 
the  courtesy  to  reply  at  your  early  convenience. 

Very  truly  yours, 

This  contains  just  the  right  amount  of  irritation  not 
to  offend,  not  the  least  part  of  which  is  the  device  of 
enclosing  copy  of  the  letter  previously  sent. 

Here  is  a  letter  that  might  be  used  in  some  cases: 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  written  you  a  number  of  times  in  regard  to  a 
matter  that  is  very  near  my  heart.  I  should  like  to  in- 
terest you  in  what  I  have  to  offer.  I  have  now  said, 
however,  all  I  can  say,  and  do  not  wish  to  trouble  you 
further  if  it  is  useless  to  do  so. 

As  a  gentleman,  appealing  to  a  gentleman,  I  want  to 
ask  the  courtesy  of  a  line  from  you  on  the  enclosed  post- 
card stating  whether  or  not  it  is  worth  while  to  address 
you  again.  If  you  reply,  I  shall  certainly  appreciate 
your  consideration. 

Truly  yours, 

A  letter  of  this  kind  should  not  be  longer. 
Another  form : 

Dear  Sir: 

I  have  written  you  three  times  but  have  not  had  the 
courtesy  of  a  reply  to  any  of  these  letters. 

I  admit  that  I  wrote  unsolicited,  and  that  you  were 
not  under  obligation  to  reply  except  as  your  personal 
interest  or  your  sense  of  courtesy  might  prompt. 

I  trust  that  this     personal  interest"  or     sense  of 


140        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


courtesy''  will  prompt  you  to  use  the  enclosed  post-card 
to  give  me  a  brief  answer  to  at  least  one  of  the  questions. 
Yours  truly, 

The  card  might  read: 

Have  you  any  interest  in  the  subject  of   ? 

Do  you  believe  that  I  have  anything  of  value  to  offer 
you? 

May  I  expect  to  hear  from  you  later  ?    When  ? 

Just  what  would  you  like  if  you  were  able  to  find  it  ? 

FIVE 

How  to  Do  Business  With  a  Reasonable  Customer 

It  is  so  easy  to  get  along  with  a  reasonable  customer 
that  there  is  danger  that  he  will  be  badly  treated.  He 
is  given  the  worst  selection  of  goods  because  all  the  best 
have  been  picked  out  for  the  chronic  kickers;  little 
attention  is  paid  to  explaining  things  to  him,  because  it 
is  known  that  he  will  understand  all  the  circumstances 
when  they  are  explained.  He  is  sympathetic  and  sees 
your  point  of  view  at  once.  Being  sympathetic  is,  in- 
deed, a  sort  of  weakness  of  his,  and  you  naturally  take 
advantage  of  him. 

The  result  is  that  some  day  your  reasonable  customer 
betakes  himself  elsewhere,  and  while  he  answers  all  your 
letters  politely,  you  never  find  out  just  why  he  trans- 
ferred his  trade  to  some  one  else. 

Here  are  a  few  rules  for  guidance  in  dealing  with  a 
reasonable  customer  so  as  to  keep  him  as  a  permanent 
asset  of  the  house,  for  the  reasonable  customer  rightly 
treated  is  as  good  as  a  dividend  on  the  stock  any  day, 
and  not  only  a  dividend  for  this  year,  but  for  next,  and 
so  on  indefinitely. 

Never  let  the  smallest  matter  go  unexplained.    An  ap- 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  141 


pearance  of  being  arbitrary  is  most  destructive  of  busi- 
ness. If  you  are  slow  in  replying  to  a  letter,  even,  ex- 
plain briefly  what  has  caused  the  delay.  If  you  can 
not  get  an  order  out  just  when  promised,  write  in  ad- 
vance of  any  complaint  and  tell  just  why,  and  just  what 
may  be  expected. 

Never  argue.  State  your  case  fully  and  clearly,  and 
if  your  customer  is  not  convinced,  turn  squarely  about 
and  try  to  arrange  some  plan  that  will  be  satisfactory  to 
him.  The  reasonable  customer  wants  to  get  matters  set- 
tled as  quickly  as  possible,  and  nothing  is  so  sure  to 
drive  him  away  as  dragging  things  out  tediously. 

Be  frank.  State  your  position  in  regard  to  a  rise  in 
prices,  for  instance,  or  refusal  to  handle  certain  goods, 
or  the.  like,  and  let  the  customer  come  to  appreciate  your 
view.  As  a  reasonable  man  he  will  do  so  in  time  if  you 
are  right. 

It  is  quite  a  mistake  to  allow  your  attention  to  be 
drawn  away  from  the  reasonable  customer  to  attend  to 
the  complaining  or  difficult  one.  Business  is  done  with 
the  reasonable  customer.  He  is  the  one  to  concentrate 
on.    Then  do  the  best  you  can  with  the  others. 

A  System  to  Keep  Reasonable  Customers  Satisfied 

The  great  trouble  with  the  easy  and  reasonable  cus- 
tomer is  that  he  never  makes  any  complaint,  and  you 
don't  know  but  that  he  is  perfectly  satisfied  till  one  day 
you  find  he  is  no  longer  on  your  books.  Then  you  won- 
der what  in  the  world  has  happened  to  him. 

The  majority  of  one's  customers  are  likely  to  be  of 
the  reasonable  kind,  and  it  is  on  them  that  your  income 
chiefiy  depends.  It  is  very  important,  therefore,  that 
you  have  a  system  that  will  automatically  attend  to  com- 
plaints which  are  never  reduced  to  writing,  but  are  just 


142        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

as  real  even  if  they  exist  only  in  the  minds  of  the  cus- 
tomers. 

Every  correspondent  should  observe  these  rules : 

1.  Answer  every  inquiry  fully,  however  trifling;  ex- 
plain fully  everything  that  may  seem  arbitrary  or  pecu- 
liar, however  slight  it  may  be.  The  man  who  neglects 
trifles  because  they  are  trifles,  is  a  fool,  since  the  biggest 
orders  are  given  because  the  smallest  ones  have  been  so 
well  cared  for.  Look  on  every  small  order  as  a  test,  an 
experiment,  which  may  lead  to  the  largest — at  any  rate 
to  a  large  total  in  a  year. 

2.  Always  explain  delays.  If  for  any  reason  what- 
ever, even  if  the  fault  is  not  your  own  but  your  cus- 
tomer's, a  delay  occurs,  write  and  explain  it.  If  it  con- 
tinues for  ten  days  or  more,  write  at  the  end  of  ten 
days  and  report  progress.  Nothing  is  so  irritating  as 
seeming  negligence;  nothing  so  pleasing  as  unsolicited 
attention. 

3.  Whenever  you  can,  call  the  attention  of  your  rea- 
sonable customer  to  some  special  bargain  or  quality  or 
the  like.  Usually  these  favors  are  reserved  for  the  diffi- 
cult customer ;  but  it  will  pay  just  as  well  to  give  them 
to  the  reasonable  customer — probably  it  will  pay  better. 

Being  attentive  is  largely  a  habit  and  a  custom.  If 
this  habit,  if  this  custom,  is  established  in  a  business 
house,  it  will  probably  be  found  that  the  foundation  has 
been  laid  for  a  great  and  permanent  business.  This 
habit  of  attention  to  customers  applies  especially  to  busi- 
ness done  by  mail.  The  mail-order  customer  is  at  a 
distance  and  there  is  nothing  to  remind  you  how  he  feels. 
You  must  go  by  faith.  The  only  thing  that  will  keep 
you  up  to  the  mark  is  a  habit  that  applies  to  every  one 
and  is  always  in  force. 

These  attentive  letters  are  very  simple  and  easy  to 
write,  and  no  particular  models  or  examples  will  help 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  143 


to  make  them  any  clearer.  They  need  not  be  long,  un- 
less length  is  necessary  to  explain  fully  what  you  have 
to  say.  The  essentials  are  simply  that  they  be  filled  with 
the  spirit  of  courtesy,  and  that  you  do  by  others  as  you 
would  that  others  should  do  by  you.  The  Golden  Rule 
of  religion  is  also  the  Golden  Rule  of  business. 

Here  are  a  few  simple  examples: 
Dear  Sir: 

We  are  sorry  to  say  that  we  are  entirely  out  of  the 
style  of  sideboard  you  have  ordered,  and  we  learn  from 
the  factory  that  they  have  none  on  hand  ready  for  im- 
mediate shipment.  A  new  lot  will  be  ready  in  about  ten 
days,  and  if  we  do  not  hear  from  you  we  shall  forward 
the  sideboard  you  wish  as  soon  as  it  is  ready.  If  you 
prefer,  we  might  give  you  something  a  little  different; 
or  if  delay  would  inconvenience  you  we  will  return 
your  money.  "We  trust,  however,  that  it  will  be  satis- 
factory to  you  if  we  ship  in  about  ten  days. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Dear  Sir: 

We  were  positively  assured  by  the  factory  that  the 
sideboard  you  ordered  would  be  shipped  to-day.  We 
have  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  there  may  be  a 
delay  of  another  day  or  two.  We  are  doing  everything 
we  can  to  push  the  matter  on. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Dear  Sir: 

We  are  pleased  to  inform  you  that  the  sideboard  was 
shipped  yesterday.    We  have  asked  the  factory  to  follow 
it  with  a  tracer,  to  prevent  unnecessary  delay  in  transit. 
V^ry  truly  yours, 


144       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


SIX 

How  to  Do  Business  With  an  Irritable  Customer 

Irritable  people  are  usually  aware  of  it.  It  is  more 
often  than  otherwise  a  physical  matter — ill-health  or  a 
nervous  disposition.  The  irritability  means  little  or 
nothing.    It  is  simply  something  that  must  be  borne. 

Now  the  average  man  is  irritated  by  irritation.  He 
can  not  stand  fussing  and  fuming  all  the  time;  he  dis- 
likes a  scold.  He  therefore  scolds  back,  or  shows  his 
irritation  in  the  words  he  uses. 

Many  an  irritable  customer  can  be  made  a  permanent 
friend  by  simply  treating  him  all  the  time  in  a  polite, 
easy,  friendly  manner,  never  showing  the  slightest  of- 
fense at  any  exhibition  of  irritation,  but  rather  being 
obsequiously  polite  at  all  times.  As  I  have  said,  the  ir- 
ritable person  usually  knows  he  is  irritable,  and  he  is 
grateful  to  one  who  ignores  it  and  treats  him  as  tho 
he  were  the  best-natured  man  in  the  world.  And  such 
gratitude  often  leads  such  persons  to  extremes  of  busi- 
ness devotion. 

Controlling  one's  temper  in  letters  is  largely  a  matter 
of  habit.  Many  people  only  half  do  it.  They  try  to  do 
it,  but  allow  a  lot  of  nasty  little  digs  to  creep  in.  The 
tone  of  their  letters  is  in  that  case  more  disagreeable 
than  if  they  were  frankly  offensive. 

In  a  business  house  the  irritable  customers  should  be 
picked  out  and  given  to  the  correspondent  who  is  con- 
stitutionally good-natured,  and  has  learned  the  wonder- 
ful art  of  being  professionally  polite  and  sympathetic. 
Such  a  person  should  the  complaint-correspondent  al- 
ways be.  No  letter  with  even  a  slightly  disagreeable 
tone  should  ever  be  allowed  to  pass;  but  when  a  cus- 
tomer is  irritated,  sympathetic  good  nature  should 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  145 


especially  abound,  A  sense  of  humor,  too,  is  invaluable ; 
but  much  discretion  must  be  used  if  banter  is  indulged 
in,  for  we  must  remember  that  the  average  person  is  too 
stupid  to  comprehend  it. 

Good  humor  in  letter-writing  is  something  that  can 
be  learned  and  practised  just  as  much  as  anything ;  and 
there  is  perhaps  nothing  that  a  firm  can  so  well  afford 
to  pay  for  as  this.  The  correspondent  should  reflect 
that  this  is  an  element  worth  money,  and  that  he  gets 
his  salary  in  part  for  displaying  it.  When  he  has  mas- 
tered it  he  has  a  right  to  ask  for  a  raise. 

Nagging  Letters  and  How  to  Handle  Them 

A  customer  who  is  always  complaining  and  nagging 
writes  as  follows: 

I  return  your  invoice  for  $165  for  a  page  advertise- 
ment in  your  magazine,  and  also  a  copy  of  the  advertise- 
ment, in  which  I  have  marked  half  a  dozen  errors  which 
I  corrected  in  the  proof,  but  to  which  you  paid  no  atten- 
tion. You  make  me  say,  like  an  idiot,  common,"  when 
I  wrote  ^'uncommon,"  and  ^^then,"  when  I  wrote 
''when."  I  do  not  choose  to  pay  $165  to  be  made  a  fool 
of,  and  I  decline  to  pay  on  the  ground  that  I  did  not 
order  the  advertisement  as  it  appeared.  Please  write 
it  off  your  books. 

Yours  truly, 

A  poor  reply : 
Dear  Sir: 

"We  have  your  letter  of  the  — th,  and  have  read  it  with 
a  good  deal  of  surprize.  Don't  you  think  $165  a  rather 
large  price  to  charge  us  for  a  couple  of  minor  typo- 
graphical errors,  which  were  perfectly  obvious  to  even 
the  most  casual  reader  as  errors  ?  If  we  are  obliged  to 
take  this  bill  into  court  to  collect  it,  don't  you  imagine 


146        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


that  the  impression  that  you  are  a  fool  would  be  inten- 
sified rather  than  lessened?  We  are  willing  to  make  a 
reasonable  allowance  for  the  annoyance  caused  you  by 
the  errors;  but  we  can  not  admit  that  the  value  of  the 
advertisement  was  seriously  injured  by  them. 

If  you  wish  to  secure  the  cash  discount  on  this  in- 
voice, payment  must  be  made  before  the  10th  of  the 
month. 

Very  truly  yours, 

After  a  letter  like  the  above,  your  irritable  customer 
would  die  rather  than  pay  the  bill. 

A  better  reply: 
Dear  Sir: 

We  thank  you  cordially  for  calling  our  attention  to 
the  two  gross  errors  in  your  advertisement.  We  have 
been  trying  to  trace  the  responsibility  for  the  neglect  in 
taking  notice  of  your  proof-corrections,  and  we  assure 
you  we  shall  make  every  effort  in  our  power  to  avoid 
such  a  thing  in  the  future.  We  know  how  annoying 
errors  are,  even  if  they  do  not  destroy  the  business 
value  of  the  advertisement.  In  this  case,  most  fortu- 
nately, the  ordinary  reader  could  hardly  help  perceiving 
that  something  was  wrong,  and  making  due  allowance 
for  it. 

Suppose  we  give  you  an  extra  quarter  page  in  our 
next  issue?  While  we  feel  sure  you  will  get  just  as 
many  answers  to  this  advertisement  as  if  it  had  been  all 
right,  still  we  heartily  appreciate  the  annoyance  the 
matter  has  caused  you,  and  we  wish  to  make  what  recom- 
pense we  can.  Accordingly  we  enclose  a  credit  for  the 
extra  quarter  page  next  month,  and  trust  you  will  find 
it  advantageous  to  continue  your  full  page. 

With  deep  regret. 

Yours  very  truly. 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  147 


The  invoice  should  not  be  enclosed  in  this  letter,  but 
should  be  returned  in  a  separate  envelop  by  a  later 
mail.  The  sight  of  it  before  the  letter  has  had  a  chance 
to  do  its  work  might  rouse  him  again.  The  chances  are 
that  nothing  further  would  be  heard  of  the  matter  and 
the  account  would  be  duly  paid.  The  dispute  is  thus 
nipped  in  the  bud  and  settled  before  it  has  had  a  chance 
to  grow  into  a  sore.  Some  business  houses  would 
neglect  the  matter  and  let  it  run  along  till  several  hun- 
dred dollars'  worth  of  business  had  been  killed  because 
a  settlement  had  not  been  reached.  Delay  in  matters 
relating  to  money  is  nearly  always  fatal. 


SEVEN 

How  to  Do  Business  With  a  Woman 

\ 

An  enormous  amount  of  business  is  done  with  women, 
or  on  account  of  women ;  and  yet  the  average  man  knows 
less  about  dealing  with  a  woman  than  about  any  other 
item  in  the  list. 

Much  depends  on  the  class  of  women  one  is  trying  to 
reach ;  but  the  following  suggestions  apply  to  the  average 
woman : 

Always  be  scrupulously,  formally  polite  to  women. 
The  formally  polite  manner  is  the  one  that  has  most 
influence  with  them.  They  prefer,  too,  to  receive  letters 
in  smart''  envelops,  on  rich-looking  paper,  with  the 
social  air  about  them.  Women  believe  in  dress,  and 
stationery  is  the  dress  of  a  letter.  Business  men,  as  a 
rule,  prefer  plain,  simple  good  taste  in  stationery,  and 
rather  suspect  anything  with  an  air  of  smartness. 

A  few  polite  phrases  should  always  be  put  into  a  let- 
ter which  goes  to  a  woman;  but  the  facts  should  be 
stated  very  simply  and  plainly,  without  argument. 


148         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Reasons,  explanations,  arguments  are  not  for  women; 
or  if  an  explanation  is  required,  it  is  best  to  cloak  it 
in  polite  phrases  and  make  it  in  the  nature  of  an 
apology  and  a  promise  that  the  same  thing  will  not 
happen  again. 

When  a  matter  of  business  is  opened  with  a  woman, 
it  should  be  prest  to  a  conclusion  as  quickly  as  possible 
lest  she  change  her  mind,  but  if  her  answer  is  ^^no,"  it 
is  often  possible  ten  days  later  to  bring  it  all  up  afresh, 
in  a  new  light,  and  have  it  decided  over  again  and 
possibly  in  your  favor.  The  great  thing  is  to  do  it  in  a 
fresh  way,  and  lightly,  so  as  not  to  be  boring. 

Thousands  of  women  are  frightened  away  when  they 
are  forced  to  a  point.  Things  must  be  laid  before  them 
and  they  must  be  left  apparently  utterly  free  to  do  as 
they  like.  It  is  often  useful  to  praise  or  recommend  a 
little  the  course  you  do  not  want  them  to  pursue,  lest 
they  think  you  are  all  on  one  side  and  go  to  the  other 
extreme  through  suspicion. 

It  invariably  takes  a  good  deal  of  time  to  do  business 
with  a  woman ;  but  you  can  not  drop  a  matter  and  sup- 
pose that  any  progress  will  be  made  while  you  are  at- 
tending to  something  else. 

Never  be  surprized  if  you  do  not  get  a  reply  from 
a  woman.  She  always  expects  a  man  to  write  two  letters 
to  her  one. 

The  Deference  Due  to  Woman 

Probably  more  than  half  the  business  done  in  this 
country  is  done  for  women,  or  at  the  instance  of  women, 
or  in  some  way  because  women  wish  it,  even  when  they 
do  not  appear  in  the  transaction  in  any  way.  The 
money  expended  for  the  home,  for  clothes,  and  for  food, 
all  passes  through  the  hands  of  women  and  their  desires 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  149 


turn  the  current  in  this  direction  or  the  other.  If  the 
advertiser  and  correspondent  could  only  find  out  what 
would  influence  the  women,  and  would  exercise  the  in- 
fluence, the  results  would  certainly  be  well  worth  the 
greatest  effort. 

It  is  my  observation  that  women  are  largely  influenced 
by  what  everybody  believes,  by  the  sentiment  in  regard 
to  an  article  that  pervades  the  air.  The  first  time  a 
thing  is  announced,  a  woman  is  not  likely  to  jump  at  it. 
She  wants  to  wait  and  see  if  anybody  else  is  going  to 
get  it.  When  she  begins  to  feel  that  all  the  world  is 
after  it,  she  will  join  in  the  rush.  The  individual 
woman,  too,  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  repeated 
appeal,  if  it  is  light,  fresh,  and  tantalizing  rather  than 
boringly  persistent. 

A  woman  is  also  particularly  susceptible  to  offers  of 
something  for  nothing.  Some  offer  that  requires  noth- 
ing more  than  the  expenditure  of  a  post-card  is  the  best 
means  of  getting  into  correspondence  with  a  woman ;  and 
then  she  is  to  be  led  on  step  by  step. 

Again,  the  appeal  to  women  must  be  almost  entirely 
through  the  senses  or  the  emotions.  Dainty  colors, 
graceful  shapes,  clever  suggestions  for  the  pleasure  of 
herself  or  friends,  and  above  all  lightness  of  touch  in 
dealing  with  the  matter,  and  the  absence  of  eagerness 
to  make  a  sale,  are  points  to  consider  and  cultivate. 

Letter  to  sell  wall-paper : 

Dear  Madam : 

Permit  me  to  suggest  a  little  scheme  for  the  decoration 
of  your  drawing-room.  It  is  but  one  of  many  that  we 
could  execute  at  very  small  cost,  and  if  you  do  not  like 
it,  we  should  consider  it  a  kindness  if  you  would  criticize 
it  freely  and  permit  us  to  modify  it  to  meet  your  ideas. 

Your  furniture,  you  say,  is  for  the  most  part  reddish 


150        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


mahogany,  and  yon  have  several  sonth  windows  afford- 
ing plenty  of  light.  Why  should  you  not  paper  the 
walls  with  a  rich  wine-colored  tapestry  paper — a  simple 
tulip  pattern  in  broad  stripes  rising  to  the  ceiling  and 
terminating  at  the  top  like  interior  oriental  columns? 
The  molding  should  be  quite  in  the  corner.  We  have 
recently  furnished  a  room  for  one  of  the  great  houses  in 
this  style  and  color,  only  of  course  in  real  silk  tapestry. 
But  the  paper  looks  so  much  like  the  silk  at  a  distance 
that  you  could  not  tell  the  two  apart. 

Then  you  might  have  fish-net  curtains  falling  straight 
to  the  sill,  with  little  green  silkoline  hangings  at  either 
side.    Curtains  to  the  sill  only  are  all  the  rage  just  now. 

The  whole  is  very  inexpensive.  The  curtains  would 
not  cost  more  than  a  dollar  a  window,  and  we  could 
furnish  the  paper  for  only  40c.  a  roll,  an  exact  imitation 
of  the  paper  we  are  putting  into  another  great  house  that 
costs  $8.00  a  roll.  We  are  selling  it  at  this  price  as  a 
special  leader  this  season. 

If  you  do  not  like  this  plan,  we  have  a  number  of  other 
good  schemes  which  we  should  be  pleased  to  offer  you. 

If  you  wish  this  particular  pattern,  however,  we  would 
advise  you  to  order  at  once,  as  it  will  not  last  long  at 
the  low  price  we  are  putting  upon  it.  We  sold  four 
hundred  rolls  of  it  yesterday,  and  what  is  left  is  not 
likely  to  last  long. 

We  have  some  very  pretty  French  bedroom-papers 
that  are  great  bargains  at  20  cents  a  roll. 

Hoping  that  we  may  be  fortunate  enough  to  please 
you,  and  placing  our  best  services  and  our  entire  stock 
at  your  disposal,  we  remain 

Very  truly  yours. 

Many  women  have  tastes  for  that  for  which  they  are 
quite  unable  to  pay,  and  they  dislike  to  ask  for  any- 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  151 


thing  cheap.  It  is  therefore  always  well  to  offer  some- 
thing quite  cheap,  while  talking  of  things  that  are  ex- 
pensive, saying  a  good  word  also  for  the  cheap  article. 
A  woman  will  always  buy  the  most  expensive  thing  she 
can  afford,  and  there  is  little  danger  of  spoiling  a  sale 
for  that  which  is  high-priced  by  offering  the  low-priced, 
and  a  sale  may  thus  be  obtained. 

How  to  Write  to  a  Lady  on  a  Delicate  Matter 

Embarrassing  situations  frequently  arise  in  which 
men  feel  wholly  at  a  loss  as  to  how  a  delicate  matter 
should  be  discust  with  a  woman.  For  example,  sup- 
pose a  young  lady  in  your  employ 'shows  a  tendency  to 
be  frivolous  and  to  neglect  her  work,  and  you  wish  to 
call  her  mother 's  attention  to  the  matter.  It  is  probable 
that  if  you  tell  the  mother  she  will  tell  the  girl,  who 
will  be  furious  with  you,  and  you  may  stir  up  no  end 
of  discord  in  your  office.  Or  perhaps  among  your  em- 
ployees some  woman  becomes  rebellious  and  proceeds, 
as  women  are  capable  of  doing,  to  make  all  kinds  of 
trouble.    How  shall  you  deal  with  such  a  person? 

In  the  first  place,  these  occasions  are  unpleasant  in  the 
extreme,  and  there  is  no  way  of  avoiding  the  unpleasant- 
ness. But  the  best  thing  to  do  is  to  face  the  situation 
at  once  and  be  perfectly  frank.  A  woman  may  be  looked 
on  as  a  child.  Treat  her  with  consideration,  but  with 
firm  authority.  Write  to  her  fully  once,  and  then  let 
her  alone.  Often  by  firmness  and  frankness  a  trying 
situation  may  be  wholly  dissipated,  and  a  rebellious 
woman  transformed  into  the  most  loyal  and  hard-work- 
ing servant.  Let  her  have  her  way  unrestrained,  and 
there  is  no  telling  where  the  trouble  will  end. 

The  majority  of  women  are  easily  frightened,  how- 
ever, and  it  is  an  art  to  broach  a  difficult  matter  deli- 
cately enough. 


152        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


On  other  occasions  delicate  or  squeamish  subjects  are 
to  be  dealt  with  in  writing  to  a  lady  who  is  a  stranger 
or  a  mere  business  acquaintance,  and  it  seems  almost 
impossible  to  find  a  suitable  way  to  present  the  matter. 
It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  almost  any  subject  can  be 
treated  with  almost  any  person  without  giving  offense 
if  it  is  done  in  the  right  way.  To  find  this  right  way 
is  a  very  difficult  matter,  but  it  can  be  found  by  effort. 
A  letter  of  this  kind  may  be  rewritten  a  number  of 
times,  each  phrase  weighed  and  slightly  modified,  and 
the  whole  tone  changed  by  the  change  of  a  word.  If  a 
letter  of  this  kind  does  not  seem  right,  patiently  hunt 
out  the  word  or  phrase  in  which  the  fault  lies.  Often 
a  single  word  may  cause  the  offense,  tho  it  seems  as  if 
the  whole  composition  were  wrong.  Consider  carefully 
the  atmosphere  surrounding  each  word,  and  the  side 
suggestion  with  which  it  may  be  weighted. 

And  in  conclusion  let  me  say  that  the  secret  of  the 
control  of  every  situation  lies  in  one's  own  self-control. 

Delicate  Letters 

My  dear  Mrs.  Blank: 

You  will  probably  be  surprized  to  have  this  letter 
from  me,  but  there  is  a  little  matter  in  connection  with 
your  daughter  which  I  thought  you  would  be  glad  to 
have  me  bring  to  your  attention,  and  I  am  taking  the 
liberty  to  write  to  you  about  it  as  a  friend  might.  Miss 
Blank  has  been  such  a  familiar  figure  in  our  office  and 
we  have  liked  her  so  much  that  we  regard  her  as  one 
of  our  business  family. 

I  hope  you  will  regard  what  I  have  to  say  as  strictly 
confidential,  and  something  growing  out  of  my  sincere 
friendship  for  you  and  your  daughter.  The  fact  is, 
Alice  has  been  rather  thoughtless  in  her  relations  with 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  153 


some  of  the  young  men  in  the  office.  I  have  tried  to 
caution  her  myself,  but  you  know  a  man  is  so  awkward 
about  these  things  that  he  finds  himself  unable  to  say 
anything  directly  without  giving  offense,  which  is  the 
farthest  thing  from  my  thought.  I  would  suggest 
simply  that  you  question  the  young  lady,  without  men- 
tioning the  fact  that  I  have  written  you,  and  when  you 
have  found  out  the  facts  in  the  case,  just  call  her  atten- 
tion to  the  unbusinesslike  air  of  her  manner.  A  slight 
warning,  I  am  sure,  will  cause  her  to  change  anything 
that  might  be  in  the  least  degree  objectionable  to  any 
one. 

Miss  Blank  has  been  a  faithful  and  competent  em- 
ployee on  the  whole,  and  I  sincerely  hope  we  may  have 
the  advantage  of  her  services  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

With  best  wishes,  Sincerely  yours, 

Note. — Observe  that  the  writer  wraps  his  hints  in  a 
cloud  of  words.  A  short  letter  would  not  do  at  all  in 
a  case  of  this  sort. 

A  Frank  Letter  to  an  Employee 

My  dear  Miss  Blank : 

For  your  own  sake,  as  well  as  for  the  good  of  the  busi- 
ness, I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  something  which 
I  am  sure  is  no  more  than  passing  thoughtlessness  on 
your  part,  but  which  produces  an  unpleasant  impression. 
I  have  observed  that  your  conduct  toward  some  of  the 
young  men  is  not  quite  as  reserved  and  dignified  as  it 
seems  to  me  a  conservative  business  organization  would 
require.  I  am  fully  convinced  that  there  is  no  essential 
harm  in  anything  you  have  done,  only  a  little  youthful 
thoughtlessness.  Nor  would  I  wish  to  have  you  repress 
your  spirits  entirely.    Just  be  a  little  more  cautious. 


154        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Please  do  not  show  this  letter  to  any  one  else,  nor 
mention  the  matter.  I  am  writing  to  you  purely  as  a 
friend,  and  to  save  you  from  possible  embarrassment 
from  other  sources.  I  value  your  services  highly,  and  I 
certainly  hope  we  may  be  favored  with  them  for  a  long 
time  to  come. 

"With  the  kindest  wishes  for  your  welfare, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

A  sensitive  girl  might  be  deeply  wounded  even  by  as 
moderate  a  letter  as  this ;  but  if  she  survives  it  she  may 
change  her  conduct  completely  and  become  a  model  em- 
ployee. 

Letters  of  this  kind,  if  prompted  by  kindness  which 
is  fully  exprest  in  the  letters  themselves,  tho  difficult 
to  write,  may  accomplish  their  purpose.  That  they  are 
disagreeable  duties  may  be  true;  but  often  we  can  not 
avoid  them.  Undue  brevity  and  bluntness  are  the  things 
principally  to  guard  against.  Even  when  much  firmer 
and  more  pointed  letters  than  these  are  required,  they 
should  be  written  with  true  literary  reserve  and  polite 
deftness. 

EIGHT 

Giving  a  Letter  the  Proper  Tone — How  to  Write  to 
your  Superior 

It  is  a  difficult  matter  for  some  people  to  give  a  letter 
just  the  proper  tone,  and  they  dread  writing  letters 
which  have  a  personal  bearing.  Yet  success  often  de- 
pends in  a  high  degree  on  being  able  to  give  just  the 
proper  tone  to  a  letter  on  all  occasions. 

In  writing  to  a  superior  one  should  write  freely, 
frankly,  and  sincerely,  but  always  with  a  certain  defer- 
ence, restraint.  Opinions  are  freely  submitted,  the  in- 
itiative is  taken,  and  one  goes  ahead  according  to  his 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  155 


best  judgment.  Yet  the  superior  is  kept  fully  informed, 
and  his  advice  is  asked  politely  whenever  occasion  arises 
for  it.  The  opportunity  to  suggest  or  direct  is  always 
offered,  but  if  advantage  is  not  taken  of  it,  the  work 
proceeds  just  the  same. 

One  person  may  be  just  as  competent  as  another,  but 
a  certain  tone  in  letters  will  make  all  the  difference. 
The  tone  that  wins  is  the  tone  of  deference,  respect,  and 
the  flattery  of  attention.  And  yet  this  is  only  a  tone, 
for  independence,  energy,  and  promptness  to  act  are 
the  things  that  are  really  valued.  Any  cringing  sub- 
servience is  resented,  and  so  too  is  any  obvious  flattery. 

To  attain  this  tone,  which  is  perfectly  natural  to  some 
people  and  so  difficult  to  attain  by  others,  one  must 
keep  oneself  in  the  right  frame  of  mind,  thinking  of  the 
superior  as  the  ideal  boss  even  if  it  is  necessary  to 
idealize  him  a  little,  and  then  being  perfectly  sincere, 
straightforward,  and  natural.  Respect  yourself  as  well 
as  your  superior,  and  at  all  times  be  a  gentleman,  and 
never  forget  that  you  are  a  subordinate. 

The  right  tone  in  letter-writing  is  not  a  matter  to 
learn  and  put  on.  It  is  wholly  a  matter  of  keeping 
oneself  in  the  right  mood  or  frame  of  mind.  If  one  is 
not  in  the  right  frame  of  mind,  the  right  kind  of  letter 
can  not  be  written,  and  it  should  simply  be  postponed 
till  the  frame  of  mind  is  more  propitious.  If  you  are 
irritated,  wait  until  the  irritation  has  passed  away;  if 
you  despise  your  superior  and  believe  him  a  fool,  don't 
write  to  him.  Think  what  the  ideal  superior  would  be, 
and  write  to  the  ideal,  not  to  the  real  one.  At  the  same 
time  do  not  allow  yourself  to  be  frightened  or  over- 
awed. Cultivate  respect  for  yourself,  remember  what  is 
due  to  you,  and  quietly  exact  it  by  taking  for  granted 
that  you  are  going  to  have  it. 


156        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 
Letters  to  Superiors 

Too  formal : 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  communica- 
tion of  July  29,  and  in  accordance  with  your  request  I 
am  enclosing  my  report  for  the  month  just  past. 

Hoping  it  will  meet  your  approval,  I  beg  to  remain 
Very  truly  yours, 

Too  free:  X. 
Dear  Sir:  ^ 

As  you  request,  I  am  sending  you  a  report  upon  the 
work  we  have  done  during  the  past  month.  July  is  not 
the  most  brilliant  month  in  the  year  for  results,  but  we 
have  done  some  hard  work  all  the  same.  I  have  got  a 
new  system  worked  out  for  handling  the  men,  and  look 
to  see  big  results  from  it  next  month. 

With  the  best  of  wishes  for  much  business,  I  am 
Yours  truly, 

Too  subservient : 
Dear  Sir: 

I  hasten  to  comply  with  your  request  of  July  29,  and 
enclose  a  detailed  report  for  the  past  month,  trusting 
it  will  meet  your  approval.  In  comparing  results  for 
this  month  with  those  for  June,  I  beg  you  to  bear  in 
mind  the  fact  of  the  season  and  the  difficulty  of  doing 
business  in  the  hot  weather.  I  am  glad  to  say,  how- 
ever, that  we  did  better  this  year  than  in  the  same  month 
last  year. 

I  have  been  thinking  of  a  plan  for  handling  the  men 
which  I  should  like  to  discuss  with  you  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. I  believe  it  will  give  increased  results,  but  I 
should  not  venture  to  try  it  without  your  approval. 
May  I  ask  you  when  you  think  you  will  be  able  to  .  pay 
us  a  visit  again  ? 

Trusting  our  efforts  may  have  your  kind  approval, 
Respectfully  yours, 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  157 


A  better  letter: 
Dear  Mr.  Clark : 

In  response  to  your  request  of  July  29  I  am  sending 
you  a  full  report  of  our  work  for  the  past  month.  The 
record  is  not  up  to  that  of  June,  of  course,  but  it  is  far 
higher  than  for  the  month  of  July  last  year.  So  I  do 
not  feel  dissatisfied,  tho  I  should  like  to  do  still  better. 

I  have  been  thinking  of  a  scheme  for  handling  the 
men  which  I  believe  will  add  20  per  cent,  to  our 
returns,  and  with  your  permission  I  am  going  to  try  it 
next  month.  It  is  simply  this:  (The  plan  is  briefly 
described.) 

If  you  see  any  objection  to  it,  I  should  be  glad  if  you 
would  let  me  know  at  once.  Unless  I  hear  from  you  to 
the  contrary,  I  shall  start  it  about  the  tenth  of  the  month 
and  try  it  out.  It  may  not  succeed,  of  course,  and  I  do 
not  guarantee  it,  but  I  think  we  can  afford  to  take  a 
chance  on  the  experiment.  I  hope  you  will  agree  with 
me,  for  I  should  like  to  see  what  will  come  of  it. 

Eldredge  is  doing  very  well — better  than  I  expected. 
I  am  not  so  well  satisfied  with  Keith.  I  wish  I  knew 
how  to  stir  him  up  a  little  and  make  him  work  more. 
Hanley  is  doing  as  well  as  ever,  and  I  think  we  ought 
to  give  him  a  raise  this  autumn.  Do  you  think  the  firm 
will  agree  to  it?  I  should  like  to  put  on  two  new  men 
in  September,  but  I  can  not  do  it  unless  I  am  given  a 
little  larger  allowance  for  at  least  a  month.  It  is  im- 
possible to  make  a  new  man  pay  his  way  in  our  busi- 
ness in  less  than  a  month. 

"We  shall  be  glad  to  see  you  whenever  you  can  get  this 
way,  and  I  hope  it  may  be  in  the  near  future.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  you  may  be  sure  that  we  will  keep 
hard  at  work. 

Sincerely  yours. 


158        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


It  always  pleases  a  superior  to  be  told  little  details  of 
the  business,  so  that  he  feels  he  is  keeping  in  touch  with 
everything;  but  he  doesn't  want  to  be  troubled  on  small 
and  unimportant  matters  which  the  subordinate  should 
settle  for  himself.  The  right  tone  in  a  letter  depends 
on  the  right  attitude  of  the  person.  If  the  attitude  is 
right,  the  tone  can  easily  be  cultivated. 

NINE 

How  to  Write  to  a  Subordinate 

Some  people  get  on  well  with  servants  and  some  people 
do  not.  Those  who  fail  usually  do  so  because  they  do  not 
see  things  from  the  subordinate's  point  of  view.  Unless 
the  superior  can  see  things  from  the  subordinate's  point 
of  view,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  subordinate  will  see 
things  from  his  superior's  point  of  view. 

It  is  often  the  duty  of  a  superior  to  handle  many 
subordinates  or  agents  by  mail,  and  to  get  the  most  work 
possible,  of  the  right  kind,  out  of  them.  To  accomplish 
this,  the  superior  should  be  able  and  willing  to  do  the 
work  required  himself.  If  he  has  done  it  and  can  do 
it,  then  he  knows  how  it  ought  to  be  done,  what  it  is 
reasonable  to  ask,  and  where  difficulties  are  likely  to 
appear.  Only  when  a  superior  is  and  feels  himself  on 
a  level  with  his  subordinates,  and  makes  them  feel  that 
he  is  on  their  level,  will  he  best  succeed  in  writing  to 
them  in  the  correct  tone. 

The  successful  manager  writes  to  his  subordinates  fa- 
miliarly, yet  maintaining  a  certain  respectful  tone  such 
as  that  which  he  expects  from  them.  Respect  must  be 
mutual,  and  if  the  superior  does  not  respect  his  subordi- 
nate, his  subordinate  will  not  respect  him. 

The  art  of  letter- writing  depends  largely  on  the  power 
to  say  things  by  not  saying  them.    A  little  restraint 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  159 


where  freedom  had  previously  been  shown,  a  little 
failure  to  commend  where  commendation  had  before  been 
given,  a  little  coldness  where  there  had  been  warmth 
before — these  are  the  most  telling  methods  of  criticizing 
and  rebuking.  If  a  subordinate  is  so  dull  or  so  blind 
that  he  will  not  understand,  a  frank,  friendly,  open 
talk  (on  paper  or  viva  voce)  is  the  only  resource. 

In  dealing  with  reasonable  human  nature  in  all  direc- 
tions, nothing  is  more  essential  than  always  giving  your 
reasons  and  explaining  your  motives  for  everything,  at 
least  to  the  extent  of  not  seeming  arbitrary.  Some 
masters  rule  by  fear,  and  by  their  arbitrary  methods  get 
a  great  deal  of  work  out  of  subordinates;  but  the  mo- 
ment such  a  master  is  out  of  the  way,  all  effort  relaxes. 
The  sympathetic  master  keeps  his  men  at  work  just  as 
well  when  he  is  away  as  when  he  is  on  the  spot,  and 
that  is  the  only  kind  of  master  a  man  can  be  by  mail. 

Letters  to  Subordinates 

Too  crusty: 
Dear  Mr.  Blank : 

I  see  that  your  man  Keith  is  not  doing  as  well  as  he 
did  a  month  ago.  We  can  not  have  any  going  back- 
ward. If  you  can  not  keep  him  up  to  the  standard,  it 
is  your  business  to  get  somebody  else  who  can  be  kept 
there. 

I  note  your  plan  in  regard  to  handling  the  men,  and 
will  let  you  know  later  whether  I  think  there  is  anything 
in  it  or  not.  As  a  rule,  I  think  it  is  better  to  stick  to 
what  has  been  proved.  "We  hire  men  to  work  rather 
than  think  up  schemes. 

I  can't  tell  when  I  shall  see  you.  It  may  be  next 
week  and  it  may  not  be  for  a  month. 

Yours  truly. 


160        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Too  vague: 
Dear  Mr.  Blank : 

I  have  your  report  for  July  and  have  placed  it  on  file. 
I  wish  you  would  write  me  in  detail  just  what  each  man 
is  doing,  for  I  like  to  keep  in  touch  with  what  is  going 
on. 

I  shall  probably  pay  you  a  visit  the  coming  month. 
Tho  I  should  like  to  get  over  by  the  10th  or  15th,  it 
may  be  the  end  of  the  month  before  I  can  manage  it. 

Hoping  everything  will  go  on  smoothly, 
Very  truly  yours, 

The  man  who  writes  a  letter  like  this  creates  the  im- 
pression he  is  not  giving  proper  attention  to  the  busi- 
ness, and  his  subordinates  are  likely  to  get  careless  and 
not  work  up  to  their  capacity. 

Good  letter  to  a  subordinate: 
Dear  Mr.  Blank: 

You  did  pretty  well  in  July — better  than  last  year. 
Your  new  plan  for  handling  the  men  sounds  well,  and  I 
sincerely  hope  you  can  work  it  out  to  success.  You  have 
my  hearty  cooperation  in  anything  that  promises  to 
bring  results. 

I  wish  you  would  run  over  the  men  and  give  me  a 
pointer  or  two  on  each  one.  "We  want  to  be  generous 
to  those  who  deserve  it,  you  know,  tho  of  course  we 
expect  good  value  for  what  we  pay.  In  that  matter  I 
have  to  depend  largely  on  your  reports,  and  I  hope  you 
will  make  them  as  detailed  as  you  can  consistently. 

By  the  way,  I  heard  an  unfriendly  report  from  Har- 
rison's district  the  other  day.  It  didn't  amount  to  much, 
but  I  think  it  would  be  worth  your  while  to  keep  an  eye 
on  what  is  going  on  over  there. 

I  see  Billings  wasn't  in  his  usual  form  last  month.  It 
might  be  well  to  touch  him  up  a  little,  tho  he  has 
always  seemed  to  be  a  good  man. 


HUMAN  NATURE  BY  LETTER  161 


I  am  sending  down  some  new  printed  matter.  I  wish 
you  would  let  me  know  what  you  think  of  it.  It  is  al- 
ways important  to  the  firm  to  have  an  unbiased  expres- 
sion of  opinion  from  the  men  in  the  field,  for  they  have 
a  better  opportunity  for  observation  than  we  do  here 
in  the  office.  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  sixteen- 
page  booklet;  but  I  couldn't  see  just  how  it  ought  to  be 
improved.  If  any  suggestion  occurs  to  you,  don't  be 
afraid  to  send  it  on. 

I  heartily  congratulate  you  on  the  good  work  you  and 
your  men  are  doing,  and  I  hope  you  will  keep  it  up  and 
improve  on  it. 

Cordially  yours, 

The  writer  of  this  letter  manages  to  get  in  a  good  deal 
of  criticism,  but  without  dampening  the  ardor  of  the  man 
to  whom  he  is  writing.  He  mingles  criticism  with  ap- 
preciation in  a  free  and  judicious  way. 

This  letter  is  very  colloquial,  tho  not  precisely  slangy. 
Colloquialism  is  winning  when  a  superior  writes  to  his 
subordinate,  but  slang  would  be  undignified.  Perfect 
dignity,  with  cordial  and  friendly  frankness  and  free- 
dom, is  the  ideal  for  the  superior. 

Assignment  XVI.    Sales  Letters  to  Different  Types 

Sections  1,  2,  3,  and  4  are  best  studied  in  connec- 
tion with  planning  general  sales  letters.  We  will 
suppose  three  different  kinds  of  persons,  one  a  woman, 
whose  names  have  been  given  us  as  good  customers  for 
the  business  we  are  pushing,  and  to  each  we  write  a 
carefully  planned  letter  soliciting  his  business,  either 
long  or  short  as  the  character  of  the  person  requires. 
Each  of  these  three  letters  we  follow  up  with  a  letter 
to  develop  interest.  On  the  ground  that  the  references 
have  been  made  by  a  mutual  friend  and  we  wish  a 


162        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


definite  statement,  let  us  write  a  final  letter,  to  compel 
an  answer,  which  shall  be  pointed  yet  always  courteous. 

In  reply  to  the  letter  to  compel  an  answer  some  other 
member  of  the  class  will  write  in  one  case  a  mild,  reason- 
able letter,  in  another  an  irritable  letter,  and  both  of 
these  are  to  be  handled  by  the  original  writer.  The 
woman  may  make  two  different  replies,  one  reasonable 
and  one  irritable,  and  each  should  be  handled  according 
to  Section  7. 

Assignment  XVII.    Letters  to  Superior  and 
Subordinate 

Finally,  let  the  members  of  the  class  write  letters  to 
the  teacher  in  the  proper  tone  as  a  superior  making 
suggestions  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  work  of  the 
class;  and  let  other  members  of  the  class  reply  to  these 
letters  in  the  proper  tone  of  a  teacher  to  class-members 
or  subordinates. 


V 


COLLECTIONS  BY  MAIL 

I  BELIEVE  that  money  can  be  collected  by  mail  as  surely 
as  by  personal  application,  and  more  easily,  but  it  takes 
more  time  to  do  it. 

First,  try  to  see  that  your  customer  gets  value  for  his 
money.  Write  to  him  often  on  that  subject,  and  make 
him  understand  clearly  just  what  you  are  making  him 
pay  for. 

Never  neglect  an  account  or  let  it  drag.  I  have  found 
that  many  people  think  that  if  you  don't  press  them  for 
payment  for  some  time  you  neglect  doing  so  because  you 
feel  you  have  not  given  them  good  value,  and  therefore 
that  they  are  not  as  much  under  obligation  to  pay  you  as 
they  thought  they  were.  During  the  past  season  I  let 
my  collections  fall  behind  because  I  was  too  busy  with 
new  business  to  attend  to  them,  and  I  found  several  of 
my  clients  thought  I  had  forgotten  them  altogether  and 
did  not  intend  to  enforce  payment ;  and  having  made  up 
their  minds  they  were  not  going  to  be  made  to  pay,  it 
was  hard  for  them  to  get  the  paying  idea  into  their  heads 
again. 

Without  doubt  the  most  effective  means  of  making  col- 
lections is  by  continued  irritation.  You  can  be  sympa- 
thetic, argumentative,  but  be  slightly  disagreeable  too. 
This  may  at  first  be  only  a  slight  abruptness  in  your 
style.  And  remember  that  irritation  requires  repetition. 
The  simplest  kind  of  dunning  letter  sent  five  or  six 
times  becomes  irritating. 

163 


164        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


It  is  a  difficult  matter  not  to  give  offense  to  good  cus- 
tomers by  your  irritation,  and  you  should  remember 
that  whenever  you  see  any  signs  that  you  have  gone  too 
far  and  your  customer  feels  you  are  giving  him  more 
then  he  deserves,  you  ought  to  apologize  and  apologize 
profusely,  even  to  a  dead-beat.  Praise  his  scrupulous 
business  honor,  and  all  that.  Go  back  to  plain  and 
simple  letters.  After  you  have  called  a  man  a  thief — 
almost,  and  then  gone  back  to  some  very  short,  simple 
dunning  inquiry  such  as,  ^^Will  you  let  me  know  when 
I  may  expect  something  on  this  account?"  your  debtor 
will  begin  to  think  you  are  getting  desperate. 

If  you  learn  the  art  of  writing  irritating  letters,  and 
keep  at  it  patiently,  I  do  not  believe  you  will  ever  have 
much  occasion  to  use  a  collection-agency.  A  collection- 
agency  is  solely  a  machine  for  irritation,  until  you  get 
ready  actually  to  sue.  Usually  the  man  who  would  be 
good  for  a  judgment  will  not  let  a  case  go  to  trial  unless 
he  feels  he  can  win.  If  there  is  no  dispute,  and  a  man 
is  willing  to  let  a  case  go  to  trial,  it  is  generally  because 
he  has  nothing  and  is  judgment  proof.  If  there  is  a 
dispute,  I  say,  compromise,  even  when  you  fully  believe 
you  are  right.    Compromising  is  cheaper  than  law. 

The  following  letters  were  originally  designed  to  col- 
lect a  balance  of  $9  due  on  an  American  credit  book- 
offer  when  $1  deposit  had  been  paid  and  the  books  had 
been  sent  on  one  week's  approval. 

The  first  letters  are  sales  letters  to  prevent  the  return 
of  the  books.  A  personal  criticism  showing  how  to  apply 
the  general  principles  in  the  books  to  the  man's  own 
particular  business  is  not  given  till  the  final  payment 
has  been  made,  and  this  is  emphasized  as  a  sort  of  in- 
ducement to  hasten  the  payment. 

"While  the  nominal  approval  time  is  one  week,  in  prac- 
tise one  month  has  to  be  allowed,  and  it  is  not  until  the 


COLLECTIONS  BY  MAIL  165 


account  is  six  weeks  old  that  with  the  fourth  letter  the 
irritating  process  of  collection  is  begun.  I  place  great 
emphasis  on  the  importance  of  laying  a  good  ground- 
work in  preparation  for  the  real  collection  effort.  In  a 
straight  sale  no  such  elaborate  preparation  would  have 
to  be  made,  and  the  series  might  begin  with  the  third 
letter. 

Note  that  the  fifth  letter  is  a  very  stiff  one,  pretty  sure 
to  draw  a  response.  If  any  are  offended,  yet  pay,  I 
always  apologize  and  smooth  them  down.  The  sixth 
letter  is  a  straight-out  mild  one  that  brings  around  many 
who  were  offended  by  the  fifth  and  are  put  in  good 
humor  again  by  the  sixth,  yet  would  have  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  sixth  had  it  come  first. 

The  ninth  letter  is  a  printed  agency-form,  and  so  is 
the  tenth.  The  eleventh  is  a  warning  that  the  account 
will  be  turned  over  to  a  solicitor  if  collection  is  not  made. 
The  point  about  the  agency-letters  is  that  they  have  a 
bright  red  seal  in  the  middle  and  look  legal — a  change  of 
venue  has  been  taken.  The  wording  of  these  letters 
makes  little  difference. 

On  30-day  merchandise  accounts,  I  should  follow  the 
practise  of  Marshall  Field  &  Co.  and  send  out  a  state- 
ment about  the  20th  of  the  month  as  a  slight  reminder 
that  payment  on  the  10th  or  15th  has  been  overlooked. 
This  is  in  addition  to  the  regular  statement  on  the  first 
of  the  month.  Many  manufacturers  send  out  a  brief 
letter  just  before  the  end  of  the  month  asking  remit- 
tance so  the  account  will  not  have  to  be  carried  over  to 
the  next  month  on  the  books. 

When  a  statement  is  sent  out  the  first  of  the  second 
month  after,  I  would  write  a  pleasant  sales  letter,  call- 
ing attention  to  the  account  and  mentioning  any  new 
items  which  the  customer  might  like  to  buy.  I  would 
always  make  the  first  collection  letters  sales  letters  ask- 


166        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ing  for  new  orders,  if  the  business  is  such  as  to  permit 
this. 

Letting  an  account  run  along  without  writing  any  let- 
ters is  to  me  highly  objectionable,  as  statements  may 
never  reach  the  attention  of  the  responsible  man  who 
draws  the  checks,  but  simply  be  filed  by  the  bookkeeper. 
A  letter  will  probably  get  to  the  right  man,  and  a  sales 
letter  in  which  incidental  reference  is  made  to  an  ac- 
count due  can  not  be  offensive  to  any  one. 

If  these  friendly  sales  letters  do  not  bring  the  remit- 
tance, at  any  rate  they  have  laid  the  ground  for  more 
irritating  collection  letters  such  as  No.  4,  No.  5,  etc.,  in 
the  following  series.  With  the  groundwork  laid,  few 
business  men  can  be  offended  by  these  severe  letters.  If 
only  statements  are  sent  with  no  letters,  a  first  letter  in 
this  severe  vein  nearly  always  gives  serious  offense. 

"When  there  is  a  discount  for  cash  which  I  want  taken, 
I  always  write  a  friendly  note  (form  at  the  end)  remind- 
ing the  customer  of  the  date  before  which  payment  must 
be  made  in  order  to  get  the  discount.  Two  or  three  days 
after  the  date  I  write  another  saying  if  the  account  has 
been  overlooked  I  will  gladly  allow  the  discount  still  if 
check  is  sent  by  return  of  post.  Many  disputes  and 
much  hard  feeling  would  be  avoided  if  this  system  of 
notification  by  letter  were  followed  more  widely.  I 
append  a  sort  of  final  letter  for  small  accounts. 

Letter  to  Go  With  Invoice;  Always  Required  on 
Approval  Shipment 

Dear  Sir: 

I  take  pleasure  in  sending  you  my  Private  Instruction 
Manuals  for  Business  Men  on  approval,  as  you  request, 

and  enclose  memo,  bill  for    additional,  giving  you 

credit  for  the    already  paid.    If  not  desired,  the 

manuals  should  be  returned  within  a  week. 


COLLECTIONS  BY  MAIL  167 


Getting  more  business  is  a  matter  of  selling  Eng- 
lish," and  also  of  getting  a  great  number  of  minor 
details  exactly  right. 

You'll  never  succeed  unless  you  study  these  details 
point  by  point  and  master  them — or  if  you  do  succeed 
you  will  not  be  able  to  repeat  your  success. 

My  private  instruction  manuals  are  the  only  publica- 
tions on  earth  where  these  seemingly  commonplace  little 
details  are  set  down  one  after  the  other  in  such  a  way 
that  they  will  actually  enable  you  to  book  the  orders  if 
you  follow  the  instructions  step  by  step.  They  have 
done  it  for  many  others,  and  they  will  do  it  for  you. 

But  even  more  important  is  my  personal  letter  of  criti- 
cism, in  which  I  show  you  how  to  apply  these  principles 
to  your  own  business,  how  you  can  win  out  and  actually 
make  more  money. 

Be  sure  to  tell  me  what  your  business  is  when  you 
remit  and  I  will  let  you  have  this  letter  of  personal  ad- 
vice and  criticism  at  once. 

Yours  faithfully, 

1st  Collection  FoUow-Up 

Dear  Sir: 

It  is  some  ten  days  since  I  sent  you  on  approval  my 
Private  Instruction  Manuals  for  Business  Men,  and  no 
doubt  you  have  had  ample  time  to  look  them  over.  I 
write  to  ask  you  to  report  on  them  at  once. 

Remember  that  in  these  manuals  you  are  not  buying 
an  ordinary  work  at  a  high  price. 

You  get  a  vast  collection  of  small  details  you  can  find 
nowhere  else,  every  one  of  which  has  been  tried  out  by 
experience,  and  which  has  helped  many  business  men 
actually  to  get  more  business. 

But  the  most  important  thing  is  the  personal  criticism 
I  will  give  you  if  you  decide  to  keep  the  manuals.  This 


168        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


alone  is  worth  the  total  price.  It  is  important  for  you 
to  have  an  expert  show  you  where  you  have  failed  in 
judging  your  customers,  and  how  to  prove  your  own 
merits,  offset  your  competition,  and  secure  orders  or 
collections  you  might  have.  If  your  follow-up  system 
is  weak,  I  will  show  you  why.  If  you  are  planning  an 
advertising  campaign,  I  will  put  you  on  the  right  track. 

All  things  considered,  my  proposal  is  an  extremely 
reasonable  one.  You  get  the  personal  letter  of  criticism 
as  soon  as  you  remit,  if  you  state  what  your  business  is. 

"Will  you  not  favor  me  with  a  check,  or  at  least  in- 
form me  if  you  will  keep  the  manuals? 

Yours  faithfully, 

2nd  Collection  Follow-Up 

Dear  Sir: 

I  sent  you  a  set  of  my  Private  Instruction  Manuals  for 
Business  Men  on  one  week's  approval;  and  as  you  have 
not  returned  them,  tho  more  than  three  weeks  have 
elapsed,  I  take  it  for  granted  that  you  are  satisfied  and 
expect  to  remit. 

You  get  more  for  your  money  on  this  offer  than  any- 
thing else  I  know  of. 

This  is  a  practical  system  for  business  men  packed 
with  more  useful  good  things  than  any  of  the  high-priced 
correspondence  courses  in  advertising  or  salesmanship, 
yet  the  cost  is  but  . 

In  the  personal  criticism  I  will  show  you  what  your 
weaknesses  and  your  strong  points  are.  A  man  ought  to 
check  himself  up  now  and  then  and  see  where  he  stands. 
A  remittance  will  be  appreciated.  State  your  special 
line  of  business  and  get  the  criticism  at  the  time  you 
pay. 

Yours  faithfully, 


COLLECTIONS  BY  MAIL  169 


3rd  Collection  Follow-Up 

Dear  Sir: 

The  Private  Instruction  Manuals,  with  which  you  get 
personal  service  equal  to  the  full  amount  charged,  were 
sent  you  with  one  week  for  examination,  and  billed  at 
the  cash-in-advance  price.  Tho  more  than  a  month  has 
elapsed  I  have  not  received  the  balance  due. 

I  am  extremely  anxious  to  get  this  matter  closed  up 
without  further  delay,  and  ask  you  to  let  me  have  a 
check  at  once. 

Yours  faithfully, 
4th  Collection  Follow-Up 

Dear  Sir: 

I  am  surprized  that  a  courteous  business  man  like  you 
should  not  only  neglect  the  balance  due  on  account  of  my 
Private  Instruction  Manuals  for  many  weeks  and  even 
months,  but  also  should  fail  to  make  courteous  reply  to 
the  letters  I  have  written. 

If  you  don't  intend  to  pay  this  bill  you  can,  at  least, 
let  me  know  that  fact. 

The  enclosed  stamped  return  envelop  is  for  a  check 
or  for  the  EEASON  WHY  NOT.    A  good  reason  cour- 
teously given  will  be  highly  acceptable,  and  that  is 
something  it  is  always  within  your  power  to  give. 
Yours  faithfully, 

5th  Collection  FoUow-Up* 

Dear  Sir: 

I  have  written  you  four  times  about  the  balance  due 
on  the  Private  Instruction  Manuals  for  Business  Men 
you  ordered  many  weeks  ago. 


*  Letters  like  this  and  No.  8  can  be  written  only  to  persons  you  know 
will  never  send  you  any  more  business — the  actual  dead-beats. 


170        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


If  you  don't  intend  to  pay,  just  say  so,  and  I  will  pull 
off  my  coat  and  jump  in  for  worth  of  fight.  I  al- 
ways enjoy  spending  money  to  make  a  man  pay  his  bills. 

If  it  is  a  case  of  oversight,  now  is  the  time  to  make 
good  and  keep  your  reputation  clean.  Any  excuses  or 
explanations  will  also  go  safely  in  the  enclosed  return 
envelop,  and  if  you  have  them,  remember  I  can  not  read 
your  mind  unless  you  speak  up. 

Yours  for  quick  action, 

6th  Collection  FoUow-Up 

Dear  Sir: 

You  received  that  last  collection  letter  of  mine  and  it 
didn't  make  you  open  your  eyes  and  take  notice! 
Well,  well,  well! 

Eeally,  I  need  this  money  badly  just  now.  "Won't  you 
go  out  of  your  way,  as  a  personal  favor,  to  let  me  have 
a  check  by  return  mail  or  within  a  week? 

Yours  in  earnest  hope, 

7th  Collection  FoUow-Up 

Dear  Sir: 

What  kind  of  business  man  are  you,  any  way,  not  to 
have  the  courtesy  to  reply  to  any  of  the  six  or  seven  let- 
ters I  have  written  you  about  the  enclosed  account  ? 

I  want  this  money,  or  I  want  to  know  when  I  can  have 
it,  or  why  I  am  not  going  to  get  it. 

Courtesy  is  cheap,  even  when  money  comes  hard,  and 
I  shall  expect  to  hear  from  you  by  return  mail. 

Very  truly  yours, 

8th  Collection  Follow-Up* 

Dear  Sir: 

I  want  to  ask  you  a  few  heart-to-heart  questions : 
Are  you  honest  or  a  dead-beat?     You  know.  If 


*  See  note  on  No.  5. 


COLLECTIONS  BY  MAIL  171 


honest,  an  explanation  of  why  you  don't  pay  the  en- 
closed bill  will  tend  to  prove  it. 

Is  the  enclosed  bill  disputed  by  you  in  any  particular? 
If  so,  I  want  to  know  all  about  it,  and  if  you  are  honest 
you  will  tell  me. 

Please  save  us  both  unpleasantness  by  dealing  frankly 
and  fairly  with  me,  and  suggesting  some  settlement  of 
this  claim. 

Very  truly  yours, 

A  Reminder  to  Take  Cash  Discount 

Dear  Sir: 

I  hope  you  have  received  the  shipment  of  which 

we  made  you  via  on  the  . 

I  would  remind  you  that  Sept.  15  is  the  date  for  taking 
the  cash  discount  of  5  per  cent.  If  for  any  reason  it  is 
not  convenient  for  you  to  remit  by  that  date,  please  no- 
tify me  promptly. 

Yours  faithfully. 
Final  Reminder  on  Cash  Discount 

Dear  Sir: 

If  you  have  overlooked  the  cash  discount  of  5  per  cent, 
on  your  account,  which  should  have  been  taken  Sept.  15, 
I  will  still  allow  it  if  you  will  let  me  have  check  by 
return  of  post. 

A  discount  of  5  per  cent,  is  too  large  to  be  lost  if  a  man 
can  possibly  avail  himself  of  it.  It  is  an  extra  discount  I 
have  given  you  in  this  form,  and  failure  to  take  it  doesn 't 
look  well  for  one's  credit.  If  for  any  reason  you  do  not 
find  it  convenient  to  remit,  I  shall  expect  you  to  set  a 
date  when  I  may  look  for  payment,  or  let  me  have  some 
explanation. 

Yours  faithfully, 


172        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


For  Small  Accounts  Overdue 

Dear  Sir: 

The  enclosed  small  account  is  considerably  overdue, 
and  I  sincerely  hope  you  can  favor  me  with  a  check 
by  return  mail. 

I  am  sure  if  you  make  a  little  effort  in  this  matter  you 
can  clean  up  the  account.  Won't  you  please  try,  and 
let  me  have  a  word  from  you  within  the  next  few  days? 
Cordially  yours. 

For  Very  Small  Accounts  Long  Overdue 

Dear  Sir: 

I  have  spent  50c.  on  postage  and  stationery  in  trying 
to  collect  your  small  account.  I  can  hardly  afford  to 
sue  you. 

If  you  don't  intend  to  pay  it  you  can  say  so  and  save 
us  both  annoyance.  Courtesy  certainly  requires  a  reply 
to  this  letter  without  delay. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Collections  from  Dealers 

The  best  kind  of  letter  to  get  money  as  a  rule  from 
dealers  is  one  that  is  slightly  irritating  but  not  suffi- 
ciently so  to  be  offensive.  Most  collection  letters  are 
too  considerate.  For  example,  you  say,  ^^If  possible, 
kindly  remit  the  enclosed  statement  before  Oct.  24." 
You  should  say,  ^^Your  account  as  represented  by  the 
enclosed  statement  is  already  considerably  overdue,  and 
as  I  must  have  money  by  Oct.  24  to  meet  obligations, 
I  must  request  that  you  let  me  have  a  check  by  return 
mail. 

'^I  have  sometimes  let  your  accounts  run  a  little 
longer  than  I  should.  When  you  need  accommodation 
and  I  am  in  a  position  to  give  it,  a  request  to  me  will 
always  be  honored. 


COLLECTIONS  BY  MAIL  173 


'^But  now  I  am  in  need  of  accommodation  from  you, 
and  I  shall  be  very  greatly  disappointed  if  you  do  not 
make  a  special  effort  to  send  me  at  least  all  you  can  on 
this  account  at  once." 

If  a  man  does  not  respond  to  a  letter  like  that,  you 
ought  to  go  after  him  at  once  with  something  like  a  sharp 
stick,  hinting  that  he  is  not  doing  just  the  right  or 
honest  thing.  If  he  gets  angry,  smooth  him  down,  but 
the  sharp  tone  of  your  letter  is  the  thing  that  will  bring 
in  the  money. 

A  Collection  Letter  that  "Drew  the  Money  Like  a 
Poultice 

The  following  letter  drew  from  one  concern  this  ac- 
knowledgment of  its  effectiveness: 

'^We  are  in  receipt  of  your  exceedingly  gentle  and 
well-worded  Houch^  of  the  4th  inst.  and  you  will  note 
the  result  enclosed.  Our  only  regret  is  that  you  could 
not  receive  it  by  the  10th  as  you  desired.  If  your  book- 
keeper words  all  his  letters  as  he  did  ours,  we  would 
judge  your  bad  accounts  would  be  very  limited,  for  it 
drew  the  money  from  us  as  a  bread  and  milk  poultice 
is  supposed  to  draw  inflammation." 
Gentlemen : 

We  like  to  feel  that  all  of  our  customers  are  our  good 
friends,  and  in  times  of  trouble  we  find  pleasure  in  know- 
ing that  we  have  friends  to  depend  upon. 

The  advances  in  the  prices  of  some  raw  materials  have 
made  it  necessary  for  us  to  go  into  the  market  and  buy 
very  heavily  for  future  requirements.  These  supplies 
will  have  to  be  paid  for  very  soon,  and  therein  lies  the 
trouble  that  we  want  to  tell  you  about. 

"We  enclose  statement  of  your  account,  and  hope  that 
you  are  sufficiently  friendly  toward  us  to  be  willing  to 
stretch  a  point  and  send  us  a  check  by  return  mail. 


174        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


At  the  present  time  we  have  between  a  thousand  and 
fifteen  hundred  open  accounts  on  our  books,  and  a  little 
anticipation  on  the  part  of  our  customers  will  relieve 
our  necessities  without  overcrowding  our  friends. 

"We  trust  that  you  will  look  at  this  letter  in  the  spirit 
in  which  it  is  written  and  not  consider  it  a  dun,  but  as  a 
friendly  request  from  one  merchant  to  another. 

Yours  truly, 

Another  Successful  Collection  Letter 

Dear  Sir: 

I  have  a  couple  of  notes  coming  due  on  the  20th  and 
30th  of  this  month,  and  should  appreciate  it  if  you  could 
let  me  have  a  check  that  I  can  use  in  paying  the  first 
of  these.    Will  you  favor  me  ? 

The  enclosed  calendar-card  will  be  handy  to  carry  in 
•your  pocket-book — accept  it  with  my  New  Year's  com- 
pliments. 

If  you  will  send  money  at  once  I  will  gladly  present 
you  with  a  copy  of  my  Commercial  Map  of  the  United 
States — the  only  map  ever  published  on  which  you  can 
trace  62  railroad  systems  through  the  network  at  a 
glance. 

Cordially  yours, 

Assignment  XVIII.    Collection  Letters 

Let  each  member  of  the  class  prepare  a  series  of  ten 
collection  letters  for  general  use  in  the  business  studied, 
considering  the  different  classes  of  people,  and  getting  a 
sufficient  variety  of  appeal  so  that  if  sent  one  after  the 
other  they  will  not  grow  stale,  and  including  special  let- 
ters for  large  and  small  accounts  or  special  occasions. 
In  this  we  will  follow  and  carefully  adapt  the  series 
given  in  the  text-book. 


VI 


USING  WORDS  SO  AS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO 
THINGS 

ONE 

The  Personal  Touch 

I  HAVE  spoken  a  great  deal  about  knowing  the  cus- 
tomer. Nothing  will  help  so  much  as  the  habit  of  visual- 
izing him  so  that  you  really  see  him  sitting  by  your 
chair  (with  your  eyes  shut  if  not  with  them  open)  and 
feel  his  presence.  Then  g^lone  can  you  write  as  you 
would  talk  to  him. 

In  the  schools,  imagination  is  supposed  to  be  the  power 
of  fancy  or  imagery,  or  else  it  is  constructing  a  chain  of 
circumstances  that  are  unreal.  Often  this  is  in  reality 
guessing.  If  there  is  anything  that  is  condemnable  in 
business  it  is  the  habit  of  guessing.  IN  BUSINESS 
YOU  MUST  KNOW  WHAT  YOU  ARE  DOING  or  you 
are  a  failure.  Absolute  knowledge  is  needed  nowhere  so 
much  as  it  is  in  business,  and  especially  in  writing  let- 
ters and  advertisements.  The  reason  why  so  much 
matter  sent  out  fails  is  that  it  is  based  on  guesswork 
and  not  on  knowledge. 

The  business  imagination  I  speak  of  is  just  the  oppo- 
site of  the  habit  of  guessing.  It  is  learning  to  know  your 
man  so  well  you  can  actually  see  him  even  when  he  isn 't 
there.  But  you  will  probably  see  better  with  your  eyes 
closed  than  with  them  open. 

When  you  begin  to  get  this  imagination  you  will  show 
in  your  letters  the  confidential,  personal  tone,  the  easy 

175 


176        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


talking  manner.  You  become  really  personal.  You 
speak  to  your  customer  as  ^^you"  and  refer  to  yourself 
as  ''we"  or  ''I.''  You  begin  to  feel  that  confidential, 
talky  tone  in  your  letters.  You  don't  put  ''scenery" 
(conventional  sales-talk)  into  your  letters,  because  if 
you  can  see  your  man  you  know  he  doesn't  care  for 
that.  You  give  him  what  he  wants,  not  a  purely  imagi- 
nary and  theoretical  line  of  "letter-talk."  Everything 
you  say  counts,  it  hits  the  mark. 

The  way  to  build  up  that  imagination  is  not  by  sit- 
ting still  and  trying  hard. 

No.  You  can  not  do  better  than  go  out  on  the  road 
and  see  the  trade.  Then  when  you  come  back  you  will 
know  how  the  trade  looks.  If  you  talk  with  customers 
you  will  know  what  they  have  to  say,  how  they  think, 
what  they  like,  and  what  they  don't  like.  You  will  have 
FACTS  and  not  guesswork  as  to  what  the  imaginary 
man  really  is. 

If  you  can  not  go  out  on  the  road  as  a  salesman,  take 
every  opportunity  to  observe  those  who  drift  into  the 
office.  Talk  to  them  whenever  you  can,  make  yourself 
agreeable,  and  try  to  be  useful  to  them.  "When  you  be- 
gin to  try  to  be  useful  to  every  person  who  comes  along 
in  business  you  are  very  likely  to  begin  to  sell  some- 
thing and  get  your  reward  for  making  the  sale. 

There  is  a  great  deal  in  being  able  to  put  a  helpful, 
personal  tone  into  a  letter.  You  can  not  do  it  unless 
you  would  naturally  be  helpful  to  the  real  person. 
Many  business  people,  and  women  especially,  like  to  be 
coldly  impersonal  in  letter-writing,  while  a  few  go  to 
the  opposite  extreme  and  become  offensively  familiar. 
There  is  a  happy  medium,  and  it  differs  with  the  kind 
of  person  to  whom  you  write;  but  even  in  the  most 
formal  correspondence  the  nice  personal  adaptation  of 
the  style  to  the  personality  of  the  one  addrest  is.  the 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  177 


result  of  a  well-developed  business  imagination.  The 
result  is  what  is  called  TACT. 

Enthusiasm  the  Corner-stone  of  Success 

English  that  bites  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men 
is  more  a  matter  of  the  thought  than  of  the  expression. 
If  you  think  clearly  and  accurately,  and  develop  a  good 
supply  of  enthusiasm  by  means  of  the  imagination,  you 
will  express  yourself  with  great  force. 

When  a  man  thinks  very  clearly,  he  seldom  violates 
a  rule  of  grammar,  no  matter  whether  he  knows  any- 
thing about  grammatical  rules  or  not. 

If  he  puts  in  punctuation  marks  just  to  make  his 
meaning  clear  to  a  common-sense,  ordinary  person,  he 
will  not  need  to  know  anything  about  the  rules  of  punc- 
tuation, for  he  will  punctuate  correctly  without  any 
rules — at  least  as  far  as  simple  business  English  goes. 

If  he  works  up  a  passionate  enthusiasm  for  his  busi- 
ness, he  will  be  very  likely  to  write  advertising  letters 
filled  with  power.  Getting  enthusiastic  is  at  the  bottom 
of  all  salesmanship. 

If  you  want  to  write  a  powerful  letter,  forget  all  about 
the  art  of  business  English,  and  sit  down  and  put  a 
hard,  telling  fact,  into  a  short,  straight-f rom-the-shoulder 
sentence.  If  necessary,  make  that  sentence  a  para- 
graph (if  it  is  important  enough),  or  emphasize  some 
phrase  in  it  by  underscoring  or  capitalizing. 

Then  give  another  straight-from-the-shoulder  fact  that 
you  feel  ought  to  convince  any  sane  man.  Then  an- 
other. 

When  you  have  finished,  tell  your  customer  just  what 
you  want  him  to  do — something  you  believe  he  can  and 
will  do — and  place  in  his  way  every  means  to  do  it 
easily.    Last  of  all,  tell  him,  command  him,  to  do  it. 

Unless  you  can  analyze  your  business,  analyze  your 


178        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


customer,  analyze  your  goods  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  use  the  customer  can  make  of  them,  and  WORK 
UP  YOUR  OWN  FAITH  AND  ENTHUSIASM,  you 
are  not  likely  to  write  any  letter  that  will  bring  orders. 
Only  the  man  who  can  convince  himself  that  he  has  the 
ONLY  PRODUCT  OF  ITS  KIND  AT  HIS  PRICE 
has  any  right  to  try  to  write  sales  letters  or  other  adver- 
tising matter.  When  a  man's  own  faith  and  enthu- 
siasm master  him,  he  can  not  help  writing  effective 
sales  English  if  he  only  tries  hard  enough  and  long 
enough. 

TWO 

How  to  Condense 

We  condense  for  two  reasons:  1.  To  economize  the 
attention  of  the  reader.  2.  To  save  the  cost  of  high- 
priced  advertising  space.  Most  business  men  put  the 
second  reason  first;  but  it  is  insignificant  as  compared 
with  the  other.  Advertisements  and  letters  which  pro- 
duce their  telling  effect  in  the  shortest  possible  time 
will  be  read  by  more  people,  and  will  get  more  business 
from  those  who  do  read.  Buying  people  are  more  ready 
to  spend  their  money  than  waste  their  time. 

The  Secret  of  Condensation 

lies  in  choosing  wisely  the  things  that  will  really  appeal 
to  the  reader.  Knowledge  of  the  reader  is,  therefore, 
the  matter  of  greatest  importance. 

Having,  by  long  and  calm  thought,  chosen  success- 
fully, you  should  express  what  you  have  to  say  in  com- 
plete and  faultless  English,  as  if  what  you  were  actually 
saying  were  all  you  ever  thought  of  saying. 

NEVER  clip  out  small  and  seemingly  unimportant 
words,  making  your  condensed  form  jerky  and  ragged. 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  179 


The  omission  of  a  few  small  words  immediately  suggests 
to  the  sensitive  reader  that  you  have  been  laboring  to 
condense,  and  he  is  rendered  suspicious.  The  smallest 
thing  to  excite  suspicion  will  destroy  at  once  the  con- 
fidence necessary  to  establishing  business  relations  with 
a  stranger. 

Successful  condensation  requires  time  and  patient 
thought ;  and  must  be  tried  many  times  before  it  proves 
perfectly  successful. 

Great  care  must  be  taken  to  cling  to  every  good  point 
once  established.  Too  many  business  men  weary  of  the 
old  thing,  and  try  something  entirely  new,  to  their  great 
loss.  When  you  must  choose  between  two  points,  weigh 
both  carefully  in  the  mind;  perhaps  try  both  in  some 
way  on  an  actual  customer;  having  finally  decided  on 
one,  let  the  other  be  utterly  forgotten,  that  it  may  cease 
to  haunt  your  mind  and  throw  it  into  confusion. 

NEVER  try  to  condense  by  cutting  out  words  and 
phrases.  Choose  afresh  the  things  you  will  say,  and 
write  as  if  you  had  never  written  before,  putting  wholly 
out  of  your  mind  the  longer  form.  It  is  often  necessary 
to  let  time  elapse,  so  that  you  will  have  forgotten  the 
longer  form.  If  the  condensed  form  seems  to  you  im- 
perfect, it  will  certainly  seem  imperfect  to  the  reader. 
Unless  you  can  convince  yourself  that  you  have  said  all 
you  really  need  to  say,  your  condensed  form  is  not  per- 
fect. 

Many  personal  salesmen  have  a  knowledge  of  their 
goods,  of  their  customers,  and  of  surrounding  conditions, 
and  the  enthusiasm  to  make  a  personal  sale,  yet  they  can 
not  write  good  letters  simply  because  they  can  not  con- 
dense. Either  they  say  too  much — so  much  the  ordinary 
man  will  not  read  it  at  all — or  they  give  it  up  in  despair 
and  say  practically  nothing. 

It  usually  takes  a  good  long  letter  to  sell  anything. 


180        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Begin  by  writing  out  your  arguments  just  as  you  would 
talk  them.  Imagine  your  customer  sitting  by  your  side 
and  that  you  are  talking  to  him  hard  for  an  order.  Do 
not  stint  the  space.  You  must  learn  to  express  yourself 
fully  before  you  can  express  yourself  briefly. 

"When  you  have  written  page  after  page  of  talk  filled 
with  enthusiasm,  and  covering  every  point,  as  if  you 
were  trying  to  compose  a  book  on  the  subject,  go  back 
over  your  matter  (have  it  in  typewritten  form  so  you 
can  read  it  easily),  and  put  in  head-lines  that  will  sum- 
marize each  subject  or  argument  or  fact.  Try  to  make 
these  head-lines  not  mere  indications  of  what  is  to  follow 
in  that  paragraph,  BUT  STATEMENTS  OF  FACTS. 
Be  sure  that  this  fact  is  so  clearly  stated  that  the  moment 
an  outsider  reads  the  head-line  he  will  know  exactly 
what  the  fact  is  before  he  reads  the  explanation. 

There  is  always  a  fact  at  the  bottom  of  every  sound 
argument.  Put  your  facts  into  head-lines  so  that  the 
man  who  glances  over  your  book  will  know  the  im- 
portant facts  about  your  business  even  if  he  does  not 
read  your  explanation  at  all.  Make  these  head-lines 
tell  your  story  as  you  go  along,  in  the  proper  order  of 
appeal  to  your  customer's  own  selfish  interest*  This 
will  make  an  excellent  circular  to  accompany  your  letter. 

With  this  long  argument,  divided  up  by  proper  head- 
lines, each  head-line  stating  a  fact,  you  can  make  up  a 
letter  almost  out  of  the  head-lines;  but  you  want  to 
weave  them  into  a  close,  logical  argument,  filling  them 
out  a  trifle  so  they  will  make  a  continuous  brief  story. 
That  will  be  a  condensed  sales-letter,  and  an  effective 
one,  too.  Above  all,  make  your  arguments  FACTS — not 
talk,  not  mere  words.  Facts  condense  easily. 

Usually  the  letter-writer  starts  out  to  write  a  con- 
densed letter  first.  It  is  much  better  to  begin  by  writing 
fully,  putting  your  whole  sales-talk  on  paper,  in  the 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  181 

right  logical  order,  and  then  choosing  from  it 
FACTS  that  will  tell.  The  man  who  can  drive  home 
facts  in  conversation  will  soon  learn  to  drive  them 
home  in  a  letter,  and  that  will  be  condensed  letter- 
writing. 

An  Example  of  Condensation 

This  series  shows  the  method  of  condensation.  The 
colloquial  phrase,  ''Letters  that  Pull"  (which  would  not 
be  permitted  in  literary  composition),  was  a  great  dis- 
covery, since  it  was  common  usage  among  business  men 
and  doubled  the  business  brought  by  the  second  letter. 

This  was  first  used  as  a  letter  and  then  as  a  page 
advertisement.  It  is  about  as  short  as  a  letter  on  this 
subject  could  be  made,  and  is  unusually  terse  and  strong. 
The  short  paragraphs  at  the  opening  got  immediate  at- 
tention because  they  looked  easy  to  read. 

The  First  Full  Letter 

Dear  Sir  : 

You  write  letters,  and  the  success  of  your  business  de- 
pends to  a  large  extent  on  the  letters  you  write. 

Do  you  have  a  system  by  which  you  improve  those  let- 
ters from  week  to  week,  month  to  month,  year  to  year  ? 

Or  do  you  make  the  same  old  mistakes  over  and  over, 
and  waste  money  in  the  same  old  way,  sending  out  the 
same  old  bad  letters? 

Undoubtedly  you  do,  for  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hun- 
dred business  men  do.  There  has  never  been  anything 
to  help  them  to  do  better. 

I  have  devised  a  system  for  the  composition  of  good 
business  letters,  like  the  systems  in  bookkeeping,  adver- 
tising, etc. 

"What  is  advertising  worth  if  you  don't  know  how  to 
handle  the  inquiries  when  you  get  them  ? 

What  are  trial-orders  worth  if  in  your  letters  you  do 


182        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


not  handle  your  customers  in  the  right  way  when  you 
get  them  ? 

Letter-writing  is  the  key  to  the  whole  situation.  The 
time  will  come  when  it  will  be  regarded  as  the  most  im- 
portant element. 

There  is  a  great  deal  to  Tetter-writing  besides  a  little 
grammar.  There  is  the  ART  OF  GETTING  BUSI- 
NESS BY  LETTERS.    I  teach  that  art. 

My  method  of  teaching  is  direct  and  simple.  In  the 
simplest  and  most  practical  way  I  tell  you  what  is  cor- 
rect English,  and  what  is  not;  what  is  an  easy  way  to 
begin  a  letter,  and  what  is  not ;  what  is  the  common  way 
of  preparing  a  circular  letter,  and  what  is  the  winning 
way. 

I  show  you  a  real  business  letter  with  all  its  errors, 
and  then  I  point  out  the  errors,  one  by  one,  in  notes, 
finally  rewriting  the  letter  as  a  model  letter.  You  see 
your  own  faults  as  in  a  mirror,  and  know  just  how  to 
correct  them. 

This  course  is  only  just  published,  but  you  will  see 
that  I  have  the  strongest  kind  of  indorsements  from 
some  of  the  best  business  men  in  the  country.  They 
say  that  I  have  really  done  something  worth  doing; 
that  I  have  crowded  my  lessons  with  good  things.  You 
can  not  doubt  their  testimony. 

But  that  doesn't  matter!  Examine  the  lessons  for 
yourself.  Send  the  first  cash  payment  of  $3,  and  I 
will  send  you  at  once  the  first  three  lessons  of  Part  I 
and  the  first  three  lessons  of  Part  II.  If  you  don't  find 
a  lot  of  good  things  in  them,  send  them  back  and  I  will 
refund  your  money. 

The  rest  of  the  lessons  I  will  mail  weekly  in  sealed 
envelops.  You  will  get  much  more  value  out  of  the 
lessons  by  being  stimulated  every  week  than  by  getting 
all  at  once.    I  will  not  send  all  lessons  at  once. 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  183 


This  new  50-lesson  course  of  mine  is  really  the  equal 
in  every  way  of  any  of  the  much-advertised  courses  on 
advertisement-writing  which  sell  for  $40.  But  I  offer 
a  minimum  of  personal  instruction  and  all  the  printed 
lessons  for  the  very  low  price  of  $10.  If  you  want  a  full 
course  of  personal  criticism  drill  on  a  weekly  parcel  of 
carbon  copies  of  your  daily  letters,  I  will  give  the  Com- 
plete Course  and  25  personal  criticisms  for  $25  cash. 
Or  if  you  send  $10  cash  for  the  printed  course,  you  may 
have  the  personal  instruction  at  any  time  within  six 
months  for  $17  cash,  or  $20  in  instalments,  $5  down  and 
$5  a  month.  The  regular  price  of  the  criticism  drill 
alone  is  $25. 

Better  get  these  lessons  so  that  you  will  be  prepared 
to  do  better  work  when  the  autumn  rush  comes.  Begin 
to  think  NOW. 

Cordially  yours, 

A  Page  Advertisement  or  Short  Letter 
^^HOW  TO  WRITE  LETTERS  THAT  PULL'' 
Are  you  aware  of  the  advantages  of  advertising  by 

circular  letter— if  you  can  write  LETTERS  THAT 

PULL? 

Here  are  some  advantages: 

1.  You  can  say  enough  to  get  orders  by  return  mail. 

2.  You  can  try  out  a  given  proposition  on  1,000 
names  for  $15— a  page  in  a  magazine  costs  $100  and  up. 

3.  Letter- writing  is  the  still-hunt  method  of  advertis- 
ing— ^your  competitors  don't  find  out  all  about  it  the 
first  day. 

But  CAN  YOU  WRITE  LETTERS  THAT  PULL? 
You  can  if  you  use  the  Smart  System. 
What  is  the  Smart  System? 

It  consists  of  50  cards,  mailed  two  each  week,  on  one 


184       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


side  of  each  card  just  the  terse  pointers  you  want,  on  the 
other  side  illustrations  in  the  form  of  actual  business 
letters.  I  give  you  the  latest  and  best  information  on 
follow-up  systems,  how  to  collect  money  by  mail,  how  to 
manage  agents,  how  to  deal  with  women,  how  to  write 
a  hundred  good  letters  a  day,  when  to  write  a  long 
letter  and  when  to  write  a  short  one,  and  fifty  other 
pointers  even  more  important.  In  short,  I  give  you  a 
complete  system,  easily  learned  and  applied  directly  to 
your  every-day  correspondence  to  make  your  letters  pull 
more  and  more  with  every  step  you  take.  Then  I  my- 
self advise  you  personally  how  to  make  YOUR  letters 
pull. 

Business  men  who  have  investigated  know  that  I  have 
a  good  thing.  Lyon  &  Healy  put  in  my  system  for  all 
their  leading  men.  The  Dodge  Manufacturing  Co.  sent 
me  a  check  for  $60  after  one  of  their  men  had  taken 
my  system  complete  and  worn  the  cards  out  with  han- 
dling. The  Sherwin-Williams  Co.  first  ordered  it  for 
some  of  the  men  at  their  home  office,  and  then  for  the 
managers  of  their  branch  offices.  Scores  of  the  biggest 
business  men  in  America  have  used  my  system  with  the 
greatest  enthusiasm.  I  can  not  begin  to  tell  you  here 
the  nice  things  they  say  about  it. 

My  system  costs  $10  cash.  Send  me  $1  by  return 
mail,  at  my  risk,  and  I  will  send  you  the  first  three  in- 
stalments of  the  system  with  full  information  and  com- 
plete outline.  If  you  don't  see  MONEY  in  it  for  you, 
and  many  times  the  $10  the  system  costs,  send  back  the 
cards  and  I  will  refund  your  money  instantly,  without 
a  word.  But  I  know  you  will  WANT  to  send  the  other 
$9  and  get  the  system  complete,  for  I  have  never  had  a 
return  or  heard  a  single  word  of  dissatisfaction.  My 
clients  are  more  enthusiastic  even  than  I  am. 

What  is  so  eloquent  as  the  endorsement  of  big  busi- 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  185 


ness  houses  who  reindorse  their  indorsement  with 
checks ! 

One-inch  Magazine  Advertisement 
*^HOW  TO  WRITE  LETTERS  THAT  PULL'' 

Sidney  Smart,  the  leading  authority  on  letter-writing, 
gives  in  his  50  Instruction  Cards  for  Business  Men 
scores  of  the  most  successful  letters  ever  sent  out  in  this 
country,  and  describes  all  the  latest  devices  and  wrinkles 
for  soliciting  by  mail,  collecting  money,  handling  agents, 
etc.,  etc.  Strongly  endorsed  by  adv.  mgrs.  of  Marshall 
Field  &  Co.,  Lyon  &  Healy,  and  many  others.  One  man 
inqreased  orders  from  letters  making  quotations  on  gears 
from  25  per  cent,  to  36  per  cent,  within  60  days — nearly 
50  per  cent,  more  business.  Address  Flatiron  Building, 
New  York,  or  3  New  Oxford  St.,  London. 

THEEE 

Emphasis  in  Business  Writing 

There  is  a  very  important  technical  point  in  connec- 
tion with  business  writing  as  contrasted  with  business 
talking  which  every  person  in  the  business  world  ought 
clearly  to  understand,  yet  which  almost  no  one  does 
understand. 

That  is  emphasis.  In  talking,  we  emphasize  adjectives, 
saying,  ''This  is  VERY  good,"  ''It  is  the  BEST  on  the 
market,"  etc. 

In  business  writing,  emphasis  must  serve  a  different 
object.  When  you  have  buttonholed  a  man  he  has  to 
listen  to  what  you  have  to  say,  but  letters,  circulars,  and 
advertisements  are  always  read  more  or  less  hastily  if 
read  at  all.    The  IMPORTANT  FACTS  should  there- 


186        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


fore  stand  out  so  that  they  will  be  caught  by  the  person 
who  only  glances.  This  may  lead  to  more  careful  read- 
ing of  the  whole  document. 

In  an  advertisement  the  important  facts  are,  or  should 
be,  put  into  head-lines,  in  large,  strong  type.  Every 
head-line  ought  to  make  an  important  fact  stand  right 
out  on  the  page,  not  some  meaningless  phrase  or  catch- 
word, for  the  fact  will  be  appreciated  by  itself,  even  by 
those  who  give  the  most  casual  glance,  and  the  mere 
word  or  phrase  will  not  be  understood  unless  the  whole 
is  read. 

In  a  circular  the  black-letter  head-lines  over  the  suc- 
cessive sections  or  paragraphs  should  give  a  series  of 
facts  which,  taken  by  themselves,  will  tell  the  whole 
story,  and  especially  the  important  facts  that  ought  to 
stand  out.  The  head-lines  read  alone,  by  a  person  glanc- 
ing over  them,  ought  to  make  complete  sense  even  if 
the  text  is  not  read.  Sometimes  facts  in  the  body  of  the 
text  are  also  conveniently  put  in  black  letter  or  capitals 
so  they  will  stand  out. 

In  letter- writing,  head-lines  may  sometimes  be  used  to 
advantage,  but  there  are  three  methods  suited  to  the 
typewriter  which  may  be  used  to  great  advantage — un- 
derscoring, capital  letters,  and  placing  sentences  or  even 
clauses  and  phrases  in  short  paragraphs  by  themselves. 

Never  underscore  a  mere  word  that  by  itself  will  make 
no  sense ;  never  capitalize  a  word  or  phrase  that  is  merely 
a  link  in  the  argument ;  never  put  into  a  separate  para- 
graph a  sentence  or  part  of  a  sentence  that  does  not 
state  some  solid  fact.  Displaying  what  are  thought  to 
be  clever  phrases  is  the  bane  of  inexperienced  writers. 

The  danger  of  all  kinds  of  emphasis  is  excess.  The 
woman  who  underscores  every  other  word  in  her  letters, 
the  advertiser  who  puts  half  his  advertisement  into  black 
type,  the  letter-writer  who  makes  every  sentence  a  para- 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  187 


graph  and  throws  in  a  few  underscores  and  capital  let- 
ters besides,  completely  defeats  his  own  purpose. 

But  by  a  careful  use  of  all  three  of  these  means  of 
emphasis,  the  strong  facts  in  the  sales-argument  may  be 
made  to  stand  out  so  clearly  that  the  shortest  possible 
length  of  time  will  suffice  to  give  a  fair  impression  of 
what  may  be  said.  Then  if  the  reader  is  interested  the 
long  paragraphs  will  be  read,  and  his  first  interest  will 
be  carried  to  complete  conviction.  A  long  letter  with 
these  devices  combines  the  efficiency  of  the  very  short 
letter  and  the  long  letters  in  one;  in  other  words,  they 
enable  the  skilful  writer  to  get  a  long  letter  read  as 
surely  as  a  short  one  would  be. 

Seldom  more  than  two  phrases  should  be  capitalized, 
not  more  than  three  or  four  underscored  (it  is  easier  to 
read  underscored  matter  than  capitals),  and  three  or 
four  short  paragraphs  are  enough 

An  Example  of  Display  for  Emphasis 

New  York,  June  20,  1907. 

Dear  Sir: 

The  highest-priced  editorial-writer  in  the  world, 
ARTHUR  BRISBANE, 
has  just  come  from  an  interview  with 
MRS.  EDDY 

at  her  home.  He  got  the  whole  story  direct  from  her. 
Look  for  it  in  the 

AUGUST  COSMOPOLITAN. 

Think  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  story  told  by  herself,  trans- 
lated in  the  words  of  Arthur  Brisbane ! 

It  will  be  the  greatest  magazine  article  that  has  ap- 
peared in  years — rivaling  the  daily  paper  in  its  impor- 
tance and  timeliness. 


188        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  August  Cosmopolitan's  first  edition  will  be  over 
500,000.  How  much  a  possible  second  edition  may  be 
we  can  only  conjecture. 

We  have  been  favored  with  your  advertisement  for 
one  issue.  I  am  going  to  suggest  that  you  place  a  defi- 
nite six-insertion  order  and  I  will  call  the  insertion  you 
have  had  as  part  of  that  order  so  that  you  will  receive  the 
3214  per  cent,  discount  on  the  itisiness  you  have  already 
placed. 

Or  why  not  place  your  business  on  a  basis  and 

you  will  be  entitled  to  the  long-time  discount  of  12l^  per 
cent,  credited  every  six  insertions. 

Are  you  with  me  for  the  August  issue,  and  shall  I 
expect  your  order  through  Mr.  W.  D.  McJunkin — forms 
close  July  3d?  Very  truly  yours, 

Gridley  Adams. 

First  Letter  to  Get  Inquiries  for  $500  Machine 

Sent  to  Select  List  of  Wood-working  Manufacturers 
Dear  Sir: 

We  have  been  told  that  you  are  using  an  old  style 
plane  jointer*  on  glue-work  at  an  actual  loss  of  $200  to 
$700  a  year  for  one  machine  as  compared  with  the 
modern  continuous-feed  glue- jointer  now  used  by  nearly 
EVERY  up-to-date  wood-working  manufacturer  in 
Grand  Rapids,  for  example,  and  other  factories  all  over 
the  country. 

We  should  consider  it  a  favor  if  on  the  enclosed  postal 
card  you  would  inform  us  whether  your  business  re- 
quires a  glue- jointing  machine  of  this  kind,  and  whether 
or  not  we  are  mistaken  in  supposing  you  have  not  yet 
put  in  one  of  the  modern  machines. 

*  This  is  a  machine  which  smooths  boards  on  one  side,  and  cuts  a 
tongue  on  one  edge  and  a  groove  on  the  other,  so  that  narrow  pieces 
can  be  glued  together  to  make  the  wide  boards  required  for  table-tops 
and  other  cabinetwork. 


WORDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  189 


If  you  are  interested,  we  should  like  to  lay  some  facts 
before  you. 

Begging  the  courtesy  of  a  reply  to  our  inquiries  on 
the  enclosed  postal  card,  whether  you  are  interested  or 
not,  we  are  Very  truly  yours, 

Falls  Machine  Company. 
 Manager. 

Answer  to  Inquiries  Brought  by  the  Preceding  Letter 

Dear  Sir: 

We  take  pleasure  in  sending  you  catalog  describing 
the  Falls  Continuous-feed  Glue-Jointer. 

The  continuous-feed  glue- jointer  has  been  on  the  mar- 
ket for  about  four  years,  and  we  were  the  originators  of 
it.  It  has  been  displacing  the  old  machines  with  aston- 
ishing rapidity,  so  that  we  have  recently  had  to  move 
into  a  new  factory  to  enable  us  to  keep  up  with  our 
orders.  The  biggest  and  best  people  in  the  wood-work- 
ing trade  throughout  the  country  are  putting  it  in. 

Here  is  just  what  the  machine  will  do  for  you :  If  you 
have  three  common  jointers  on  your  floor  to-day,  one 
modern  continuous-feed  machine  will  do  the  work  of  all 
three,  saving  not  only  the  wages  of  two  operators,  but 
power,  space,  etc.,  besides,  and  giving  you  a  greater 
range  and  better  work. 

That  couldn't  mean  less  than  $25  a  week  to  you,  or 
$1,000  in  a  year — twice  the  cost  of  the  machine. 

If  you  have  now  only  one  machine  on  jointing,  costing 
you,  say,  $10  or  $12  a  week  to  operate,  and  sup- 
posing it  is  very  slow  work,  the  same  operator  will  do 
the  work  in  three  or  four  hours  on  the  continuous-feed 
machine,  and  have  the  rest  of  his  time  for  other  work. 
Even  if  you  can  operate  the  machine  but  three  or  four 
hours  a  day  on  the  average,  you  save  at  least  $5  a 
week,  or  enough  to  pay  for  the  machine  in  100  weeks. 


190        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Then  consider  that  when  yon  have  a  rnsh  of  work,  as 
all  factories  have  at  times  qnite  apart  from  natnral 
growth,  of  which  you  must  take  care,  you  will  be  able  to 
handle  it. 

Can  you  afford  to  waste,  or  throw  away,  say,  $500  a 
year  which  your  competitors  save  and  either  add  to  their 
profits  or  use  in  competition  against  you? 

Of  course  you  can't.  It  is  not  a  question  of  affording 
to  buy  the  machine,  but  affording  to  get  along  without  it. 

And  in  buying  a  continuous-feed  jointer,  insist  on 
having  a  drive-gear  such  as  the  Falls  machine  has.  We 
know  that  a  worm-gear  has  given  trouble  again  and 
again,  and  it  is  obvious  that  the  machine  with  a  worm- 
gear  will  be  worn  out  in  a  very  short  time.  We  have 
never  had  any  trouble  with  our  drive-gear,  and  every 
part  of  our  machine  is  made  in  the  very  best  way  for 
hard  use,  so  that  an  inferior  machine  even  at  half  the 
price  would  be  dear  to  you. 

The  price  of  the  Falls  machine  is  $500,  and  we  gladly 
send  on  30  days'  trial  at  our  own  risk  for  carriage  both 
ways.  All  we  ask  is  a  chance  to  prove  our  claims  in 
your  own  shop.    May  we  ? 

Yours  very  truly. 

Letter  to  General  List  to  Get  Inquiries  for  $500 
Machine 

HOW  TO  EARN  $500  A  YEAR  MORE 
Dear  Sir: 

There  are  about  200  wood-workers  in  this  country  who 
could  profit  very  decidedly  by  throwing  out  their  old- 
style  plane  glue-jointers  as  scrap-iron,  and  substituting 
the  Falls  Continuous-feed  Glue-Jointer. 

Already  100,  it  seems,  have  been  put  out,  including 


WOEDS  TO  MAKE  PEOPLE  DO  THINGS  191 

NEARLY  EVERY  LARGE  CONCERN  IN  THE 
COUNTRY. 

You  are  one  of  the  100  others  who  are  LOSING 
MONEY  when  you  THINK  you  are  ECONOMIZING. 

I  should  like  to  SHOW  YOU  just  how  MUCH  YOU 
ARE  LOSING  in  labor,  power,  and  space — chiefly  labor. 
I  am  willing  to  wager  you  are  losing  enough  to  pay  for 
the  machine  in  a  year. 

THAT'S  AYHY  YOU  CAN'T  MEET  COMPETI- 
TION IN  DULL  TIMES. 

But  fill  out  the  enclosed  card  and  I  will  show  you  in 
exact  figures  just  what  you  are  throwing  away. 

Yours  truly, 
FALLS  MACHINE  COMPANY. 

Form  of  Return-Card  Enclosed  with  Above 

Mr.  W.  J.  Koehn, 

Falls  Machine  Co.,  Birmingham. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  should  like  to  have  you  figure  out  just  what  would 
be  saved  in  my  case  by  throwing  out  my  plane- jointer 
and  putting  in  a  Falls  machine.  Also  give  me  cost  of 
your  machine. 

We  run  plane  jointers,  with  crew  composed  of 

 with  total  wages  of  

a  week.    Power  costs  us  a  week.    Space  is 

worth  to  us  

(Signed)  

Address  

Assignment  XIX.    Preparing  for  a  Sales-Campaign 

"We  are  now  ready  to  take  up  the  study  of  a  single 
sales  effort  on  one  line. 

First,  shall  it  be  to  sell  one  single  article,  or  to  get 
customers  for  the  business  as  a  whole? 


192       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


When  that  question  has  been  decided,  let  us  carefully 
consider  the  different  kinds  of  people  to  whom  appeal 
may  be  made  and  settle  on  the  type  most  likely  to  be 
profitable  to  work. 

Then  let  us  collect  our  sales  arguments  and  present  the 
whole  in  a  well-worked-out  booklet,  carefully  bearing  in 
mind  the  type  of  person  we  wish  to  reach. 

The  strongest  arguments  we  will  condense  into  a  single 
sales  letter  of  about  a  page. 

Finally  we  will  prepare  a  small  advertisement  which 
will  be  likely  to  get  inquiries. 


VII 


SALESMANSHIP  IN  LETTERS  AND  IN 
ADVERTISING 

ONE 

FIVE  STEPS  IN  WRITTEN  SALESMANSHIP 

There  are  two  kinds  of  letters,  those  which  are  mere 
memoranda  and  those  in  which  salesmanship  is  involved. 

Memorandum  letters  are  not  very  important.  If  they 
are  clear,  simple,  and  common-sense,  they  are  usually  all 
right.  They  convey  information  to  other  members  of  a 
firm,  give  orders,  correct  errors,  and  in  other  ways  facili- 
tate the  transaction  of  business.  Every  stenographer 
and  clerk  ought  to  be  able  to  write  as  good  memorandum 
letters  as  the  head  of  the  house. 

To  write  letters  that  will  make  people  do  what  you 
want  them  to  do — ^letters  that  will  make  people  buy — is  a 
very  different  affair.  Any  office-boy  who  learns  to  write 
salesmanship  letters  may  hope  to  become  manager  of  the 
firm,  and  some  day  the  sole  owner.  The  future  of  such 
a  person  is  limited  only  by  the  limitations  of  the  business 
itself. 

At  the  bottom  of  all  success  in  writing  advertisements 
is  the  ability  to  write  salesmanship  on  paper — to  use 
words  so  as  to  make  people  do  things.  But  this  is  the 
thing  that  every  business  manager,  and  every  clerk,  as- 
sistant, and  office-boy  ought  to  try  to  master,  for  it  is 
the  key  to  all  business  success. 

1.  Creating  desire.  It  is  a  great  error  to  suppose 
that  many  people  want  what  you  have  to  offer.  Most 

193 


194       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


business  men  assume  that  the  desire  exists  and  they 
have  only  to  satisfy  it.  The  really  successful  advertisers 
have  perceived  that  desire  must  be  created,  or  fanned  up. 

2.  Showing  how  your  plan  works.  Most  people  de- 
pend on  their  own  common  sense.  If  the  plan  seems  rea- 
sonable, they  will  trust  their  own  judgment  of  it.  You 
must  therefore  give  them  a  chance  to  judge. 

3.  Proving  your  statements.  The  first  question  a 
possible  buyer  asks  is.  Is  this  your  theory  of  what  your 
scheme  ought  to  do,  or  has  somebody  actually  found 
your  theory  to  be  sound,  your  scheme  successful? 

4.  Making  a  man  feel  like  ordering. 

5.  Making  ordering  easy,  safe,  and  quick. 

This  Letter  Was  Not  Successful 

Dear  Sir: 

We  enclose  a  page  advertisement  that  has  been  appear- 
ing in  System  and  other  magazines.  System  began  to 
advertise  Mr.  Smart's  books  at  its  own  expense  August 
1,  and  took  in  five  times  the  usual  value  of  its  space  the 
first  month.  We  thought  the  limit  was  reached,  but  now 
we  get  more  orders  day  by  day  than  ever  before. 

Marshall  Field  &  Co.  and  most  of  the  big  advertising 
agencies  and  mail-order  houses  use  our  criticism-of- 
English  service  and  recommend  our  books,  and  they  tell 
us  we  give  them  ^'big  value  for  the  money."  Certainly 
you  will  make  no  mistake  in  ordering  the  books  when 
you  can  get  them  at  wholesale  price. 

Very  truly  yours. 

School  of  English. 

This  Letter,  With  Indorsements,  Brought  Orders 

Dear  Sir: 

M.  W.  Savage,  President  International  Stock  Food  Co., 
employing  fifty  stenographers,  has  said:   ''If  all  my 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  195 


salesmen,  clerks,  stenographers,  etc.,  could  learn  to  write 
a  correct  and  effective  business  letter,  they  would  be 
worth  25  per  cent,  more  to  me,  and  I  should  be  willing 
to  pay  the  full  value  for  their  services. Five  hundred 
other  business  men  in  this  city  and  elsewhere  have  said 
the  same  thing. 

Sidney  Smart's  books  will  teach  you  correct  and 
effective  business  English. They  are  the  only  books 
ever  written  which  actually  do  this  effectively  for  grown- 
up home  students.  In  six  months  you  can  visibly  in- 
crease your  earning  power  merely  by  giving  a  little 
thought  to  improving  your  daily  letters  according  to  the 
directions  given. 

If  you  order  at  once  you  get  the  advantage  of  the 
special  introductory  wholesale  price  of  $2  for  the  set 
of  four  cloth-bound  volumes  in  a  box.  IT  WILL  PAY 
YOU.    Don't  put  it  off. 

Very  truly  yours, 

School  of  English. 

Notes 

The  first  of  these  letters  is  defective  especially  in  that 
it  does  not  in  any  way  lead  the  reader  to  feel  that  he 
needs  something  of  this  sort,  and  that  this  particular 
thing  is  precisely  adapted  to  helping  him.  He  will  say, 
*^0h,  it  may  be  a  good  thing  for  some  people ;  but  I  don't 
want  to  go  back  to  school  at  my  age."  Or  he  may  say, 
^  ^  There  are  a  great  many  books  on  English ;  but  I  never 
saw  one  that  would  help  me. ' '  Or,  again,  ^  *  I  know  good 
English  is  a  good  thing;  but  I  haven't  time  for  anything 
that  does  not  bear  directly  on  my  business. ' ' 

But  the  worst  feature  of  the  first  letter  is  that  it  is  a 
boast  of  what  had  been  done.  It  looks  like  an  attempt  to 
''rush"  the  customer,  and  he  doesn't  want  to  be  rushed. 
It  is  really  no  testimony  to  the  value  of  the  books,  only 


196        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


to  one's  skill  in  getting  people  to  buy  them.  I  believe 
that  it  is  always  a  mistake  to  talk  about  what  you  have 
done,  or  about  yourself  in  any  way  except  to  show  just 
what  you  can  do  for  your  customer.  A  plain  statement 
of  what  you  can  do  for  him,  and  why  you  can  do  more 
for  him  than  any  one  else,  does  not  seem  boasting.  The 
customer's  own  interest  blinds  him.  He  feels  that  he 
would  not  have  confidence  in  you  if  you  did  not  speak 
confidently  of  yourself.  Therefore,  in  talking  to  him  of 
his  affairs  the  utmost  confidence  is  required.  To  one 
who  is  not  interested,  this  confidence  seems  terrible  ex- 
aggeration ;  therefore,  to  boast  before  the  reader  is  ready 
for  it  by  reason  of  his  interest  is  always  fatal. 

The  second  letter  is  strong  because  it  begins  by  point- 
ing out  in  the  most  effective  possible  way  that  study  of 
English  WILL  PAY.  The  first  paragraph  is  an  almost 
convincing  argument  on  this  point. 

The  second  paragraph  follows  with  a  clear,  confident, 
firm  statement  of  just  what  can  be  done  to  meet  the  de- 
sire that  has  been  aroused. 

The  third  paragraph  contains  an  inducement  for  im- 
mediate action,  and  presses  the  matter  right  home  to  a 
sale. 

Two  circulars  should  accompany  such  a  letter  as  this 
— a  sheet  of  strong  indorsements,  and  a  circular  describ- 
ing the  books  in  detail,  giving  exact  contents,  size,  etc. 

The  first  letter  failed  because  it  made  no  appeal  to  the 
need  or  want  of  the  customer;  the  second  letter  suc- 
ceeded because  it  referred  to  nothing  else. 

Poor  Salesmanship 

Here  is  a  man  who  has  a  good  carriage  to  sell.  He 
writes  a  letter  saying  he  has  the  cheapest  and  best  thing 
on  the  market.  Then  he  follows  with  a  letter  which  be- 
gins, ''Pardon  us  for  writing  you  again,  but  we  have  not 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  197 


received  an  answer  to  our  first  letter. ' '  In  a  third  letter 
he  begins  by  saying,  ^^We  hope  you  will  not  think  we  are 
unreasonably  persistent/'  Here  is  his  fourth  letter,  on 
the  whole  the  best  of  the  lot : 

Dear  Sir: 

We  are  sorry  that  you  did  not  respond  to  our  letter  of 

 ^    We  shall  never  give  up  the  hope  of  securing 

your  order^  for  one  of  our  carriages  until  we  hear 
that  you  have  bought.  Our  proposition  is  too  good  for 
you  to  throw  aside  without  giving  it  careful  consider- 
ation. 

You  want  to  buy  a  carriage — we  want  to  sell — now 
why  can't  we  two  get  together? 

We  know  that  if  you  will  only  take  the  trouble  to  call 
we  can  show  and  prove  to  you  that  we  can  save  you 
money  on  your  purchase. 

We  say  this  because  we  have  faith  in  our  ability  to  do 
the  same  for  you  that  we  have  done  for  many  others. 
We  base  this  statement  on  our  many  past  successes,  and 
on  our  methods — and  on  our  carriages,  that  have  stood 
every  test  to  which  they  have  been  subjected.^  We 
are  persistent*  in  our  efforts  to  secure  your  patronage, 
but  we  can  not  tell  you  in  a  letter  how  earnest  we  are  in 
this  matter,  and  we  want  to  urge  you  strongly  to  give 
this  and  the  other  letters  that  we  have  written  you 
thoughtful  consideration. 

Hoping  to  have  a  visit  from  you  soon,  we  are 
Respectfully, 

1.  This  phrase  is  the  biggest  kind  of  business-killer. 
It  puts  the  man  who  gets  the  letter  into  an  antagonistic 
position  at  once. 

2.  The  preceding  language  is  stupidly  bormg. 

3.  This  paragraph  is  earnest  and  convincing. 

4.  Here  we  get    persistent"  for  the  third  time.  The 


198        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


words  that  follow  would  be  good  if  this  first  clause  had 
been  omitted. 

A  Good  Letter 

The  following  is  a  real  business  letter  that  is  excellent 
in  nearly  every  particular,  and  we  are  not  surprized  to 
hear  that  it  brings  a  great  deal  of  business.  It  is  the 
third  letter  in  the  series.  I  should,  however,  omit  the 
words  ^'we  are  writing  you  a  third  time''  as  a  relic  of 
the  persistent"  habit.  I  should  omit  the  first  sentence 
altogether.  At  the  end,  the  words,  '^"We  are  going  to 
keep  on  writing  to  you  until  you  realize  it, "  is  ^  ^  persis- 
tence" of  the  right  sort.  It  sounds  as  if  the  writer 
were  persistent  for  the  man's  own  good,  not  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  making  a  sale.    Here  is  the  letter  : 

Gentlemen : 

In  response  to  the  request  of  our  Mr.  Wiltse  we  wrote 
you  on  Septemb^  24  with  reference  to  our  dustless 
brushes,  and  we  are  writing  you  a  third  time.  You 
know  what  a  nuisance  it  is  to  have  dust  flying  about  and 
settling  on  your  desks,  papers,  and  furnishings.  It  is  a 
filthy,  disagreeable,  germ-laden  nuisance. 

You  think  you  can't  get  rid  of  it,  but  you  can.  Per- 
haps you  think  there  is  some  magic  about  our  brush  if 
it  will  do  all  we  claim  for  it,  but  there  isn't.  Just  look 
at  the  construction  of  the  brush;  a  specially  prepared 
row  of  oil-bearing  fibers  comes  in  contact  with  the  dust 
as  you  sweep  and  absolutely  prevents  it  from  rising. 
Doesn't  that  sound  reasonable? 

Now,  listen !  "We  don 't  ask  you  to  take  our  state- 
ments as  gospel  truth.  You  can  have  a  brush  for  thirty 
days  for  free  trial.  If  you  don't  like  it,  send  it  back, 
and  it  won 't  cost  you  a  penny.  "We  have  something  here 
that  you  need,  and  we  know  it.  We  are  going  to  keep 
on  writing  to  you  until  you  realize  it;  but,  hadn't  you 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  199 


better  just  drop  us  a  line  and  request  us  to  send  you  a 
brush  on  approval  by  next  parcel-post? 

Yours  truly, 
DUSTLESS  BRUSH  COMPANY. 
Notice  that  in  this  letter  we'  have  the  five  essentials ; 
fanning  up  desire,  showing  how,  offer  of  proof  (free 
trial),  the  style  that  stimulates,  and  easy  way  to  order. 

TWO 

CREATING  DESIRE 

The  average  business  man  assumes  that  desire  for  a 
certain  thing  already  exists  in  the  customer.  If  there 
is  no  desire,  there  is  no  possibility  of  doing  business,  he 
says.  If  he  may  safely  assume  that  the  desire  does  exist, 
all  that  is  necessary  is  to  persuade  the  customer  that  you 
have  a  good  thing. 

The  fact  is,  all  large  success  in  advertising  and  letter- 
writing  depends  on  fanning  up  desire.  Some  desire  does 
exist,  but  in  the  average  man  it  is  feeble.  The  man  does 
not  know  how  much  he  needs  a  $15  felt  mattress,  a  bottle 
of  rheumatism-cure,  a  pair  of  hand-embroidered  slippers, 
a  book  on  business  letter-writing.  You  must  first  of  all 
make  him  understand  why  he  needs  such  a  thing  as  this, 
and  needs  it  badly. 

The  first  step  in  creating  desire  is  to  put  yourself  in 
the  other  man's  shoes.  Look  at  life  from  his  point  of 
view.  Begin  by  saying  ^^you,''  not  ''I.''  ''I"  who 
write  am  of  no  earthly  account  to  ^^you,''  the  man  who 
reads;  but  if  I  can  show  you  what  your  troubles  are, 
how  somebody  clever  enough  may  remedy  them,  and 
then  step  in  and  say  I  will  be  the  friend  to  help  you 
out  of  your  trouble,  then  ^^I"  become  very  important  to 
''you.''  But  it  is  essential  to  start  with  ''you"  if  I 
am  to  end  with  "I." 


200        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Therefore,  in  letters  to  sell  goods  all  formal  phrases, 
all  apologies  of  whatever  kind,  all  remote  statements, 
jokes,  or  catch-phrases  are  wrong.  They  kill  business. 
They  are  a  fence  between  the  buyer  and  the  seller. 

There  is  but  one  sane,  salesmanlike  way  to  begin  a 
selling  letter,  and  that  is  with  the  customer  and  his 
needs,  his  troubles,  his  fight  for  life  and  success.  Show 
him  that  you  understand  him,  that  you  have  been  in  his 
shoes,  that  you  know  all  about  what  he  has  to  contend 
with,  that  you  are  thinking  more  of  his  problems  than 
of  your  own,  and  immediately  his  heart  will  open  toward 
you,  he  will  melt  and  look  expectantly  to  this  friend  who 
understands  him  so  much  better  than  he  understands 
himself. 

Poor  Ways  to  Begin  a  Sales  Letter 

When  we  recognize  that  the  first  thing  in  a  soliciting 
letter  is  to  create  desire,  we  can  easily  see  how  much 
business  may  be  killed  by  the  following  conventional 
openings,  all  of  which  are  in  wide  use,  and  all  of  which 
are  bad: 

Gentlemen : 

We  notice  your  name  mentioned  in  some  of  the  recent 
trade-papers,  and  from  the  information  thus  obtained  we 
infer  that  you  are  in  the  market  for  a  steam  road-roller. 
If  this  is  the  case,  we  shall  be  very  glad,  indeed,  to  hear 
from  you,  in  order  that  we  may  submit  a  proposal  on  our 
goods,  etc. 

Gentlemen : 

If  you  are  in  the  market  for  a  road-roller,  will  you 
not  write  us  for  prices  and  descriptive  printing  ?  West- 
ern Steel  Road-Eollers  are  so  favorably  known  to  the 
trade  that  you  can  hardly  afford  to  overlook  them  when 
you  purchase.  Etc. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  201 


Gentlemen : 

When  we  recently  wrote  you  we  said,  Western  Steel 
Road-Rollers  are  the  best  rollers  made,  and  that  we  give 
our  customers  the  best  and  promptest  service.  Etc. 

Gentlemen : 

We  are  a  little  disappointed  over  the  fact  that  we  have 
not  heard  from  you  about  road-rollers.  We  tried  to 
show  you  why  you  ought  to  use  Western  Steel  Road- 
Rollers,  and  hoped  you  would  be  interested. 

Gentlemen : 

We  know  that  we  can  not  sell  all  the  hardware  that 
is  sold,  but  we  have  been  hoping  that  our  Mr.  Smith 
would  succeed  in  getting  your  name  on  our  books.  We 
know  that  if  once  you  start  with  us  you  will  like  our 
ways. 

Observe  that  all  these  letters  begin  with  *'we/'  not 
with  ^^you.''  It  is  worth  thousands  to  any  man  to  es- 
tablish the  ''you"  habit. 

The  Right  Way  to  Begin  Sales  Letters 
Dear  Sir : 

How  many  circular  letters  did  you  throw  into  the 
waste-paper  basket  this  morning? 

Have  you  ever  considered  that  perhaps  some  of  your 
own  letters  are  cast  aside  in  the  same  way,  that  they 
sometimes  fail  to  win  the  attention  and  interest  of  the 
men  to  whom  you  send  them  ? 

(This  is  called  the  ''question  method"  of  opening  a 
soliciting  letter.    It  is  one  of  the  best.) 
Dear  Sir : 

All  day  long,  from  the  morning's  whistle  to  the  eve- 
ning's shutdown,  you  are  figuring  on  ways  to  sell  more 
goods.  You  willingly  spend  hundreds  of  dollars  to  per- 
fect a  single  idea  that  will  get  more  business. 


202       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


And  now  we  offer  yon  a  most  remarkable  opportunity 
to  increase  sales;  an  opportunity  to  secure,  in  worked- 
out,  charted  form,  over  100  complete  selling-campaigns 
— business-getting  schemes  and  ideas  that  have  built  up 
some  of  the  largest  concerns  in  America.  And  yet  we 
do  not  even  ask  you  to  risk  a  single  penny  to  secure 
them.  Etc. 
Dear  Sir : 

The  grocer  has  a  hard  life  of  it — grinding,  digging 
away  for  pennies  day  by  day.  If  you  could  add  $500 
to  your  profits  this  year,  how  very  pleasant  it  would  be ! 
You  could  take  a  larger  shop ;  you  could  build  an  exten- 
sion on  your  house;  you  could  buy  some  much-needed 
furniture ;  you  could  present  your  wife  with  some  furs, 
or  books,  or  the  hair  mattress  and  brass  bed  she  has 
been  wanting  so  long! 

My  dear  Mr.  Blank,  I  am  willing  to  guarantee  to  add 
3  per  cent,  to  your  profit-margin  this  year — that  is,  I  will 
save  you  a  clear  3  per  cent,  if  you  will  order  your 
groceries  by  mail  from  me  instead  of  giving  the  order  to 
the  salesman  who  calls  upon  you.  If  your  business 
amounts  to  $10,000  this  saving  will  be  $300 ;  if  it  is  only 
$5,000,  it  will  be  $150,  and  surely  $150  is  well  worth 
having.  Etc. 

THREE  . 

SHOW  HOW  YOUR  PLAN  WORKS 

Every  man  values  his  own  judgment.  The  easiest 
way  to  flatter  him  is  to  appeal  to  that  judgment. 

You  first  create  desire.  You  make  a  man  feel  his 
needs.  "When  he  feels  them  intensely  enough,  the  rea- 
sonable thing  to  do  is  to  show  how  he  may  get  out  of 
his  trouble.    Point  out  just  the  steps  one  after  the  other. 

A  man  buys  rivets  of  which  the  heads  come  off.  His 
machinery  falls  apart.    He  doesn't  realize  how  much  he 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  203 


is  losing  by  using  these  poor  rivets,  but  when  you  have 
made  him  feel  he  is  going  bankrupt  unless  he  gets  some 
better  rivets,  you  begin  to  tell  him  why  rivets  lose  their 
heads.  They  are  not  made  of  iron  or  steel  properly  car- 
bonized. If  he  could  get  rivets  made  in  this  and  this 
way,  they  wouldn't  lose  their  heads,  and  your  customer 
wouldn't  be  losing  so  many  dollars  by  reason  of  repairs, 
so  many  dollars  by  reason  of  not  satisfying  his  cus- 
tomers, so  many  dollars  by  reason  of  extra  handling  of 
goods.  All  this  great  loss  comes  from  the  simple  fact 
that  the  iron  was  not  properly  carbonized.  It  costs  a 
few  shillings  a  ton  more  to  carbonize  the  iron  properly, 
but  what  is  that  compared  with  the  fortune  the  man  is 
throwing  away  every  day ! 

You  think  this  all  out  for  this  man,  but  you  put  it  in 
such  a  simple  way  that  he  thinks  he  has  thought  it  all 
out  for  himself.  He  has  made  up  his  mind  to  get  prop- 
erly carbonized  rivets  henceforth  or  die  in  the  attempt. 

How  easy  then  for  you  to  say,  '^I  have  them  right 
here  at  your  disposal." 

But  some  business  man  will  say,  ^^My  business  is  too 
intricate.  I  can't  explain  it  to  every  Tom,  Dick,  and 
Harry. ' ' 

My  dear  sir,  the  essence  of  success  in  salesmanship  on 
paper  is  the  ability  to  simplify  your  complicated  busi- 
ness into  a  sentence.  Perhaps  you  know  too  much  about 
your  business  to  do  it.  Then  get  some  clever  writing, 
analyzing  man,  who  doesn't  know  too  much,  to  do  it  for 
you.  This  is  the  point  at  which  the  outsider  is  of  real 
value. 

"Showing  How"  Useful  in  Selling  Mining-Stock 

There  is  one  class  of  letters  in  which  '^showing  how" 
is  the  main  thing  and  that  is  the  letter  for  the  sale  of 
mining-stock,  etc.    Every  man  feels  that  his  judgment 


204        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


is  as  good  as  the  next  one's  in  a  matter  of  this  kind. 
Such  investments  are  always  speculative.  There  can  be. 
no  such  thing  as  proof,"  because  after  the  proof" 
there  is  no  stock  to  sell.  But  the  broker  can  set  forth 
the  facts  in  the  case  in  detail  so  that  any  man  may  form 
his  own  judgment.  If  the  ^'indications"  look  good  to 
the  man  who  receives  the  letter,  and  he  is  an  investor, 
he  will  send  his  money.  There  is  no  promise,  for  there 
can  be  none.  Every  man  acts  on  his  own  judgment  for 
better  or  worse.  The  great  thing,  therefore,  is  to  give 
him  the  best  possible  chance  to  judge. 

If  the  following  letter  were  to  be  sent  out  promiscuous- 
ly, it  should  begin  by  painting  in  glowing  colors  the  for- 
tunes that  have  been  made  and  can  be  made  in  mining- 
stock  speculation.  "When  the  desire  of  the  customer  is 
fanned  up  to  the  proper  point,  the  letter  should  state  the 
facts  in  the  case.  This  is  a  follow-up  for  the  first  an- 
nouncement, but  the  first  presentation  should  be  much 
the  same  except  that  in  an  accompanying  circular  full 
details  should  be  given. 

In  the  next  to  the  last  paragraph,  the  words  ''We  do 
not  wish  to  rush  you  into  an  investment"  seem  to  me 
ill-advised,  and  calculated  to  rouse  suspicion  just  when, 
probably,  the  reader  is  all  ready  to  send  his  money.  The 
moment  he  begins  to  ask,  ''Have  I  almost  been  rushed 
into  an  investment  ?"  he  is  in  a  bad  way.  A  more  tact- 
ful way  of  putting  it  would  be  to  say  simply,  "In  any 
case  we  give  you  30  days  to  investigate,  so  that  you  have 
full  opportunity  to  verify  all  our  statements  without 
losing  a  good  chance  by  delay." 
Dear  Sir: 

A  few  days  ago,  through  the  medium  of  our  Market 
Eeview,  we  called  your  attention  to  the  stock  offering  of 
the  Laguna-Goldfield  Mining  Company,  recommending  it 
as  an  extra  high-class  investment.    The  opinion  that  we 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  205 


then  exprest  concerning  it  has  been  amply  substantiated 
by  the  strike  made  last  week  on  the  Red  Top,  adjoining 
the  Laguna  on  the  west,  followed  two  days  later  by  a 
sensational  strike  on  the  Silver  Pick. 

It  has  been  definitely  known  that  the  main  vein-system 
of  the  Jumbo,  Velvet,  and  St.  Ives,  and  the  cross-vein 
system  of  the  Silver  Pick  and  Mohawk  centered  in  the 
property  of  the  Laguna  Company,  and  it  was  the  opinion 
of  our  Mr.  Patrick  and  several  other  prominent  engineers 
that  the  Red  Top  vein  also  entered  this  property.  The 
correctness  of  this  theory  has  been  demonstrated  by  the 
new  strike  on  the  Red  Top  of  a  large  body  of  ore,  four 
feet  of  which  averaged  $5,000  per  ton — the  ledge  dipping 
almost  due  east,  straight  toward  the  '^Miss  Jessie^'  claim 
of  the  Laguna  Company.  The  uncovering  of  this 
splendid  ore-body  places  the  Red  Top  head  and  shoul- 
ders in  front  of  the  biggest  mines  in  the  district,  and 
the  stock  is  to-day  worth  intrinsically  $1  per  share  or 
more.  Eight  months  ago  it  was  difficult  to  place  at 
15  cents.  Thus  one  more  prospect  has  become  a  mine — 
and  one  of  the  greatest  mines  in  the  country. 

With  such  excellent  neighbors,  and  considering  the 
general  direction  of  the  vein-system  as  above  outlined, 
do  you  wonder  that  we  are  enthusiastic  over  the  pros- 
pects of  the  Laguna  Company?  To  our  mind,  it  has 
the  making  of  oue  of  the  most  sensational  properties  in 
this  rich  district,  and  we  are  confident  that  a  reasonable 
amount  of  development  work  will  disclose  a  mine  of  the 
first  magnitude. 

Altho  recent  developments  warrant  it,  the  price  will 
not  be  raised  and  our  clients  will  secure  the  benefit. 
The  stock  is  15  cents  a  share.  We  do  not  wish  to  rush 
you  into  an  investment  in  this  company.  But  we  do  say 
to  you — investigate  it  thoroughly.  We  are  confident 
you  will  then  join  us.    If  you  will  send  us  your  reser- 


206        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


vation  accompanied  by  a  remittance  of  33  1-3  per  cent., 
you  may  have  thirty  days  in  which  to  investigate.  If 
you  find  we  have  made  a  single  misstatement  of  fact  con- 
cerning this  property,  we  will  promptly  refund  your 
money,  together  with  1  per  cent,  interest  thereon  per 
month.  If  desired,  you  may  pay  for  the  stock  in  regular 
monthly  instalments  of  5c.  a  share. 

Our  guaranty  goes  with  this  offer.  We  advise  you  to 
act  quickly,  if  at  all.  An  immediate  investment  of 
a  good  sum  is  warranted  by  the  most  conservative. 

Yours  very  truly, 

FOUR 

PROVING  YOUR  STATEMENTS 

First  create  desire,  then  show  how  your  plan  works 
so  that  you  will  get  the  indorsement  of  a  man's  judg- 
ment, and  then  ? 

He  will  say.  Yes,  that  is  all  very  well.  That  is  ex- 
cellent theory.  But  how  does  it  work?  Has  any  one 
else  found  it  to  work  out  in  his  case  as  you  say  it  should  ? 
We  all  know  that  many  things  ought  to  work  that  way 
which  don't. 

Now  what  is  proof  ? 

It  is  not  laudatory  testimonials. 

Praise  is  a  question  apart.  The  thing  is.  Has  any  one 
else,  situated  as  I  am,  found  it  to  work?  The  proof  is 
in  a  statement  from  some  one  known  to  the  reader  that 
he  has  tried  this  thing  you  offer  and  has  found  that  it 
works.  If  he  tells  just  how  it  has  helped  him,  so  much 
the  better.  There  is  no  praise  about  it.  I  wanted  so 
and  so.  I  tried  this.  It  did  so  and  so  for  me.  These 
are  facts,  simple,  natural,  spontaneous  facts.  They  are 
proof. 

There  is  no  better  proof  than  a  collection  of  copies 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  207 


of  checks.  Real  money  has  been  paid  for  my  goods 
again  and  again.    How  can  you  get  around  that  ? 

Next  in  value  to  checks  are  facsimiles  of  orders. 

Facsimile  reproductions  of  hearty  letters  are  next  best. 

But  don't  have  too  many.  Often  more  impression  is 
made  with  only  one  or  two  or  three,  which  give  an  im- 
pression that  thousands  might  be  shown  if  you  only 
would. 

One  attracts  attention,  the  second  confirms  the  first, 
while  the  third  begins  to  be  tiresome,  suggesting  thou- 
sands more  like  it. 

Get  the  Customer's  Point  of  View 

The  MOST  IMPORTANT  THING  in  letter-writing 
and  advertising  is  probably  getting  the  customer's 
point  of  view." 

First,  this  consists  in  having  something  to  which  the 
customer  will  respond.  If  people  don't  want  Persian 
rugs,  it  will  be  extremely  difficult  to  build  up  any  busi- 
ness in  the  sale  of  them. 

If  some  people  want  them  and  some  don't,  you  must 
get  a  list  of  names  to  write  to  which  contains  a  large 
enough  percentage  of  those  who  do  want  them  to  make 
circularizing  pay.  Any  other  list  is  of  no  account. 
Likewise  in  advertising,  a  periodical  must  be  found  that 
has  a  large  enough  proportion  of  readers  who  want  the 
article. 

These  things  can  be  found  out  only  by  experiment. 

But  after  it  is  proved  that  people  do  want  a  certain 
article  that  is  offered,  success  depends  on  talking  to 
them  from  their  own  point  of  view.  Exactly  why  do 
they  want  the  thing?  Success  depends  on  finding  out 
just  why  they  want  the  article,  so  that  that  reason  may 
be  enlarged  upon.  If  you  don't  find  out  just  WHY  they 
want  it,  your  advertising  may  fail  altogether. 


208        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


In  one  case,  I  had  a  set  of  practical  books  on  English 
to  sell.  I  tried  to  advertise  them  from  the  point  of  view 
of  literary  and  social  culture,  but  my  letters  and  adver- 
tising were  wholly  unsuccessful.  No  one  wanted  the 
books,  however  good  they  might  be,  for  the  sake  of  social 
and  literary  culture. 

I  then  advertised  them  as  useful  because  they  would 
help  a  business  man  to  produce  more  effective  letters. 
The  very  people  to  whom  the  first  appeal  meant  nothing, 
responded  instantly  to  this  appeal.  The  point  of  view 
made  all  the  difference  in  the  world. 

Many  people  have  a  superior  article  to  advertise  for 
which  they  charge  more  than  some  one  else  charges  for 
an  inferior  article — harness,  let  us  say.  The  advertiser 
says,  ^^I  have  the  best  harness  that  can  be  made,^'  and 
he  wonders  why  people  don't  believe  him  and  don't  buy 
his  harness. 

The  fact  is,  those  who  buy  harness  see  before  them 
two  kinds.  Both  look  about  the  same,  but  one  costs 
less.  Of  course,  the  natural  tendency  is  to  buy  the 
cheaper  harness. 

Now  the  only  argument  that  will  have  any  weight 
with  that  man  is  some  sort  of  proof  that  the  extra  cost  is 
even  more  than  well  spent — that  the  higher-priced  har- 
ness is  really  the  cheaper  in  the  long  run.  The  adver- 
tiser must  face  the  facts  and  talk  it  out  with  the  man 
on  paper,  just  as  if  he  had  spoken  up  and  said  he  didn't 
see  why  he  should  pay  more  for  a  harness  that  didn't 
look  any  better.  And  mere  statement  that  the  harness 
was  better  wouldn 't  convince  him.  There  must  be  proof. 
This  may  first  be  an  appeal  to  his  reason  by  showing 
just  how  the  harness  is  made,  and  then  giving  a  guar- 
anty that  it  will  wear  so  and  so  long,  and  finally  testi- 
monials that  somebody  has  had  one  of  these  harnesses  and, 
it  has  worn  so  and  so  long. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  209 


In  selling  a  hat,  a  salesman  may  often  sell  a  $3  hat 
by  stating,  or  giving  some  proof,  that  the  $3  hat  will 
wear  three  years,  whereas  the  $2  hat  will  look  like  a  rag 
inside  of  a  year.  That  makes  a  man's  head-cover  cost 
him  $1  a  year  if  he  buys  a  $3  hat,  and  $2  a  year  if  he 
buys  a  $2  hat. 

Again,  a  tailor  may  have  a  particularly  well-made  suit 
of  clothes  for  which  he  wants  a  certain  price.  Perhaps 
he  will  say  it  will  wear  so  much  longer  than  a  cheaper 
suit.  But  the  buyer  cares  nothing  for  that,  since  he 
doesn't  care  to  wear  one  suit  more  than  so  long,  any- 
way. But  this  suit  may  also  be  specially  stylish,  and  if 
the  customer  is  told  the  suit  is  the  height  of  fashion,  he 
may  buy  it  on  that  account,  paying  for  fashion  when  he 
wouldn't  for  quality.  It  doesn't  much  matter  whether 
the  reason  that  actuates  the  purchaser  is  a  good  one  or 
not,  it  is  business  to  find  what  reason  appeals  to  him 
most,  and  give  him  that  reason  as  strong  as  you  can. 

The  customer's  point  of  view  can  be  ascertained  only 
by  experiment.  And  the  best  way  is  to  get  out  and  talk 
to  the  customer  personally.  Mail  solicitation  is  blind. 
You  never  know  why  the  man  does  not  respond,  for  he 
will  rarely  tell  you.  That  is  why  you  must  go  out  and 
discover  for  yourself.  You  must  thoroughly  understand 
the  customer's  point  of  view,  and  tactfully  adapt  your- 
self to  it  if  you  hope  to  succeed. 

How  to  Handle  Testimonials 

It  is  something  of  an  art  to  get  the  right  testimonials, 
and  quite  as  much  of  an  art  to  know  what  to  do  with 
them  when  you  have  them. 

The  first  thing  to  consider  is  what  constitutes  a  good 
testimonial. 

The  answer  is,  Any  hearty,  enthusiastic  appreciation 
of  what  you  have  or  have  done  for  some  actual  person. 


210        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


AVhat  you  have  done  for  one  man  it  is  probable  you  can 
do  for  many  more,  and  that  actual  experience  is  a 
better  key  than  any  guess  you  yourself  may  make. 

My  method  of  collecting  testimonials  is  this:  I  listen 
for  the  first  word  of  appreciation  that  comes  to  me  by 
speech,  in  a  letter,  or  at  second  hand;  or  for  any  fact 
that  indicates  appreciation  such  as  a  special  sale,  a 
change  in  somebody's  plans  or  policy  on  account  of  what 
I  have  or  have  not  done,  etc.  Then  I  write  down  just 
what  has  been  said,  or  select  a  few  sentences  from  a 
letter  or  the  like.  I  make  sure  that  the  person  from 
whom  I  am  taking  my  indorsement  will  not  object  to 
my  use  of  it. 

If  it  is  necessary  to  solicit  indorsements,  I  take  my 
article  with  me  and  go  and  see  my  friends  or  any  one 
likely  to  be  interested.  I  talk  my  article  or  plan  en- 
thusiastically, suggest  the  good  points,  and  hope  some 
one  will  agree  with  me  and  say  over  what  I  have  said. 
These  ideas  then  become  his  and  he  will  probably  give 
them  the  weight  of  his  name. 

An  indorsement  should  not  be  mere  praise.  The  best 
indorsement  is  one  which  says  that  such  a  thing  is  pre- 
cisely adapted  for  doing  such  and  such  a  thing,  or  that 
it  has  done  it  successfully. 

Properly  chosen  and  arranged,  a  series  of  indorse- 
ments may  tell  the  story  in  detail  of  what  a  thing  is 
and  what  it  can  do.  The  good  indorsement  makes  all 
your  best  points,  but  in  the  words  of  some  one  not  the 
seller.  Your  series  is  not  complete  till  you  have  a  sig- 
nature to  every  separate  argument  you  make  or  fact  you 
state.  Take  up  these  points  one  by  one  and  look  for 
backers  for  them. 

Most  good  indorsements  are  buried  in  letters  relating 
to  various  subjects,  and  have  to  be  extracted.  They 
should  be  rearranged  by  the  advertiser  so  that  they  will 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  211 


seem  to  make  a  complete  letter  which  says  just  what 
you  want  and  no  more.  This  selective  rearrangement 
of  the  matter  in  a  letter  is  legitimate,  and  those  who  are 
willing  to  let  you  use  their  names  at  all  will  consent  to 
the  use  of  a  letter  amended  in  this  way. 

As  I  have  already  said,  indorsements  should  be  looked 
for  not  only  in  somebody's  words  of  praise,  but  in  inter- 
esting facts.  The  merest  order  for  a  bottle  of  a  particu- 
lar wine  from  the  Czar  of  Russia  would  be  the  most  use- 
ful possible  indorsement.  A  newspaper  may  strengthen 
an  advertisement  of  its  cable-news  service  by  printing  a 
facsimile  of  a  bill  for  cable-tolls  if  the  amount  is  large. 
If  an  especially  big  order  comes  in  from  some  well- 
known  house,  the  check  may  be  reproduced;*  it  is  a 
mute  but  powerful  witness  to  your  claims.  Suppression 
of  name  or  address  from  an  indorsement  usually  operates 
not  only  to  kill  the  value  of  what  is  said,  but  even  to 
cast  suspicion  on  other  statements. 

And  here  is  a  most  important  note  to  make :  Any  ir- 
regularity that  tends  to  excite  suspicion  may  instantly 
overcome  the  entire  force  of  the  best  possible  array  of 
printed  indorsements.  The  thing  a  man  can  readily  see 
with  his  own  eyes  is  the  greatest  witness  of  all  for  or 
against  you. 

FIVE 

MAKING  A  MAN  FEEL  LIKE  ORDERING 

After  all,  a  man  acts  more  on  feeling  than  on  judg- 
ment. If  you  make  him  feel  like  buying  he  is  pretty 
sure  to  buy,  but  if  he  does  not  feel  like  it  he  won 't  do  it 
even  if  he  knows  he  ought  to.  He'll  let  it  go  till  next 
time  and  then  he  won't  do  it  at  all. 


*  If  photographing  is  objectionable,  a  copy  in  ordinary  type  will 
serve  the  purpose.  It  is  more  impressive  than  a  mere  statement  of  the 
amount  received. 


212        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  first  thing  to  do  to  make  a  man  feel  like  ordering 
is  to  write  with  extreme  energy.  If  you  are  supremely 
energetic,  the  reader  gradually  gets  into  your  energetic 
frame  of  mind,  and  as  he  gets  more  and  more  energetic 
he  wants  to  do  something  to  let  off  his  energy.  What 
more  natural  than  that  he  should  let  off  that  energy  in 
placing  an  order  with  you.  He  does  it  because  he  feels 
he  must  do  something,  and  that  is  the  easiest  thing  to 
do.  Then  he  thinks  with  energy  what  a  tremendous 
amount  of  work  he  will  do  with  your  machine  when  he 
gets  it.  He  wants  a  machine  like  yours  to  work  off  his 
energy. 

Energy  in  a  letter  is  a  trick  of  style,  but  it  consists  at 
bottom  in  being  exceedingly  energetic  and  intense  your- 
self. To  write  in  an  energetic  style,  get  into  an  energetic 
mood. 

Next  to  energy,  probably  the  best  thing  to  make  a  man 
feel  like  buying  is  the  confidential  spirit,  the  spirit  of 
friendship  and  trust.  Another  way  of  putting  it  is  to 
say  that  it  is  magnetism  in  speech  and  in  writing.  The 
secret  of  this  magnetism  is  probably  self-restraint.  If 
you  know  a  million  times  as  much  as  you  show  on  the 
surface,  and  yourself  realize  that  you  know  all  this,  you 
will  somehow  contrive  to  make  the  other  fellow  feel  that 
you  know  far  more  than  you  have  spoken  of,  that  you 
can  do  for  him  far  more  than  you  claim,  because  you 
have  seemed  to  say  very  little  and  that  just  the  right 
thing,  when  it  is  very  plain  that  you  could  say  so  much 
more.  You  do  not  exaggerate  in  any  word  or  phrase. 
You  carefully  refrain  from  exaggerating.  The  reader 
feels  the  restraint,  and  he  is  curious  to  know  what  good 
thing  you  have  kept  back.  That  makes  him  feel  that 
he  wants  to  know  you  better. 

And  then  men  are  made  to  feel  like  buying  by  the 
chatty,  good-humored  style.    It  is  largely  a  matter  of 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  213 


the  style,  the  way  the  words  read,  the  way  they  sound 
when  read  aloud. 

A  Clever  Business- Winner 

The  following  letter,  put  out  by  a  well-known  house, 
has  been  laughed  at  as  an  absurdity.  To  date  a  printed 
form  letter  as  ''Wednesday  Evening,  8.30,''  and  talk 
about  sitting  up  late  at  night  to  get  the  letter  off, 
seemed  the  height  of  the  ridiculous. 

It  was  a  business  joke,  however,  which  the  business 
men  who  received  it  appreciated,  and  it  was  rewarded 
by  a  stack  of  four  hundred  remittances  within  a  very 
few  days.  Dozens  of  men  who  had  no  earthly  use  for 
the  book  sent  in  $2  because  the  letter  tickled  them  so 
they  couldn't  keep  quiet  until  they  had  done  it. 

This  letter  in  a  peculiar  way  made  the  men  to  whom  it 
went  FEEL  like  ordering,  and  they  did  order.  There 
was  no  proof,  but  the  letter  was  sent  to  old  friends. 
Had  it  been  sent  to  strangers  it  would  doubtless  have 
failed. 

Mr.  Smith's  Office, 

"Wednesday  Evening,  8:30. 

My  dear  Mr.  Sprague : 

In  order  to  be  absolutely  certain  that  this  letter  is 
mailed  to  you  to-night — and  to  a  few  more  of  our  warm- 
est and  oldest  friends — I  have  given  up  almost  an  entire 
evening  to  it.  For  the  matter  I  am  writing  you  about  is 
unusually  important ;  and  I  want  to  hear  from  you  about 
it  before  I  leave  for  New  York  on  Thursday. 

I  will  receive  from  the  printers  Thursday  a  few  ad- 
vance copies  of  J.  M.  Coates's  ''How  to  Make  a  Factory 
Pay" — a  business  book  that  I  honestly  believe  will  save 
you  more  money — ^will  do  more  to  protect  your  whole 
business  system — than  any  other  book  in  print. 

I  intend  to  make  arrangements  in  New  York  to  adver- 


214       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


tise  these  books  throughout  America,  but  I  want  to  dis- 
tribute these  advance  copies  among  our  oldest  sub- 
scribers, that  I  may  know  their  opinions. 

"We  have  issued  no  printed  matter  about  '^How  to 
Make  a  Factory  Pay."  But  even  a  volume  of  printed 
matter  could  not  show  you  the  value  of  this  book  as  will 
the  book  itself.  So  I  want  to  send  you  the  book.  I 
want  you  to  see  for  yourself  how  it  tells  clearly — fully — 
explicitly — exactly  how  to  manage  and  systematize  a 
modern  business. 

But  I  do  not  expect  you  to  buy  it.  I  merely  want 
you  to  look  it  over  AT  MY  RISK  and  let  me  have  your 
frank  opinion  of  it.  If  you  send  it  back  I  shall  be  just 
as  thankful  to  you  as  tho  you  had  kept  it — and  even 
more  satisfied  than  if  you  had  never  sent  for  it  at  all. 
For  the  frank  criticisms  from  these  friends  of  ours  mean 
a  great  deal  more  to  me  than  the  mere  profit  on  the  sale 
of  these  advance  copies. 

You  would  willingly  risk  a  dozen  times  $2  for  a  single 
plan  that  would  reduce  your  factory  costs  alone.  Yet 
this  book  contains  twenty-two  money-saving  plans  that 
will  reduce  expenses  throughout  your  whole  business — 
plans  of  managing  and  operating  a  factory — plans  of 
hiring  and  handling  employees — plans  that  will  check 
every  leak  and  eliminate  every  waste  in  your  factory  and 
office.  And  I  do  not  ask  you  to  risk  one  single  penny  to 
secure  them. 

Merely  send  for  the  book  ON  APPROVAL.  The  $2 
you  forward  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  remittance,  but  as 
a  deposit — a  deposit  that  can  be  withdrawn  as  easily  as 
you  can  withdraw  your  bank-balance.  And  then,  if  any 
single  chapter  alone  is  not  worth  ten  dollars  to  you,  I 
will  not  only  return  your  $2,  but  I  will  remit  in  all  $2.10 
to  pay  you  in  addition  for  your  postage  and  trouble  in 
looking  over  the  book. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  215 


Think  of  it !  $2 — the  mere  price  of  a  handful  of  cigars 
— for  the  lifetime  experience  of  the  highest-salaried  fac- 
tory specialist  in  the  country!  And  when  I  make  an 
offer  so  fair  and  liberal — when  you  do  not  even  run  a 
risk  in  sending  for  the  book — can't  I  send  it  to  you  for 
criticism  next  week  ? 

Merely  attach  a  postal  order  for  $2  to  this  letter — post 
to-night  if  possible,  and  use  the  envelop  enclosed. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  W.  SMITH. 

There  is  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  modest  people  and  of 
old  and  conservative  business  houses  that  it  is  infra  dig. 
to  write  a  really  personal  letter  to  the  public  or  to  busi- 
ness customers.  This  letter  has  been  lampooned  as  a 
ridiculously  personal  attempt  to  bamboozle.  The  fact 
remains,  however,  that  it  got  the  business,  and  the  hard- 
headed  business  men  who  received  it  were  glad  to  get  it. 

It  is  true  that  fakers  talk  and  write  so  cleverly  that 
they  sell  worthless  things  to  thousands  of  people,  for  it 
is  only  a  clever  man  who  can  sell  a  worthless  article. 
Good  articles  sell  themselves  to  a  certain  extent;  but 
why  shouldn't  the  legitimate  manufacturer  or  salesman 
talk  just  as  earnestly  and  just  as  cleverly  about  his  good 
article  as  the  faker  does  about  his  poor  one? 

If  you  really  have  something  good,  write  in  the  earnest, 
enthusiastic,  personal  way  that  brings  orders. 

SIX 

MAKE  ORDERING  EASY,  SAFE,  AND  QUICK 

Tho  you  may  excite  a  man's  desire,  tho  you  may  suc- 
cessfully appeal  to  his  reason,  and  prove  your  case,  and 
make  him  feel  like  ordering,  you  may  lose  all  unless  you 
clinch  the  order  on  the  spot.  And  this  can  be  done  only 
by  making  the  way  to  order  easy,  safe,  and  quick. 


216        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


When  I  send  out  circulars  I  say,  '^Pin  a  dollar  bill 
to  this  letter  and  send  at  my  risk  in  the  enclosed  en- 
velop." The  man's  name  and  address  are  on  the  letter 
I  send  to  him.  In  my  letter  are  all  the  terms  of  the 
contract.  He  does  not  have  to  write  a  word,  or  look  for 
an  envelop  and  address  it,  or  go  after  a  postal  order,  or 
write  a  check.  He  puts  the  dollar  in  the  envelop  with 
the  letter,  seals  it,  stamps  it,  mails  it.  Nothing  could  be 
easier.  I  tell  him  just  what  to  do  and  he  can  hardly 
resist  my  command.    He  wants  to  obey  and  he  does  obey. 

But  I  want  to  make  it  safe  for  him.  I  therefore  tell 
him  he  may  have  his  dollar  back  for  the  simple  asking. 
He  sends  it  on  deposit.  He  takes  no  risk  whatever.  He 
can  back  out  later  if  he  changes  his  mind.  "Why  should 
he  think  it  over  now,  when  he  will  have  all  the  rest  of 
his  life  to  think  it  over  and  to  back  out  if  he  thinks  he 
ought  to  ?  It  is  not  only  easy  and  quick,  but  it  is  safe, 
and  there  is  no  need  for  the  cautious  to  worry. 

In  my  opinion  it  is  a  great  mistake  ever  to  encourage 
delay  of  any  kind.  Make  your  letter  such  that  it  will 
work  the  buyer  up  to  the  buying-point,  and  then  clinch 
him  on  the  spot  or  never.  Get  something  out  of  him  that 
commits  him.  Once  a  man  is  committed,  it  is  hard  for 
him  to  back  out.  This  is  the  way  the  canvasser  does, 
and  this  is  the  way  the  letter  salesman  must  do.  Make 
every  advertisement  get  orders.  All  inquiries  ought  to 
be  orders.  Make  letters  get  orders,  for  what  are  in- 
quiries worth?  The  very  name  indicates  a  possibility, 
and  the  reader  of  your  letter  will  never  feel  more  like 
buying  than  when  he  finishes  reading  your  letter.  Let 
him  pass  the  thing  for  a  day,  and  he  will  probably  pass 
it  for  life  unless  you  go  after  him  again  in  the  same  way. 

In  my  judgment  a  letter  which  does  not  bring  quick 
returns  is  of  little  or  no  value. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  217 


Clinchers 

Canvassers  know  that  the  art  of  clinching  an  order  is 
not  an  easy  one.  Some  never  learn  it,  and  so  fail  com- 
pletely, tho  proficient  in  every  other  respect. 

Clinching  an  order  by  mail  often  requires  a  clinching 
device. 

A  very  usual  device  is  wholesale  price  for  a  short 
time  only."  A  fictitious  price  is  made  to  be  cut.  This 
is  so  usual  that  buyers  seem  to  expect  it,  and  are  not 
satisfied  unless  they  get  it.  They  know  it  is  fictitious  in 
many  cases,  but  there  is  always  that  possibility  that  the 
price  may  change  suddenly  and  so  action  should  not  be 
delayed.    This  is  a  good  clincher. 

It  is  very  usual  to  give  a  small  and  inexpensive  pre- 
mium for  an  immediate  order. 

Sometimes  a  discount  is  given  for  an  order  within  ten 
days. 

Letter  to  Clinch  Orders 

Good  letters  to  clinch  orders  are  not  common.  The 
following  has  been  used  with  success  by  an  American 
correspondence  school  (personal  signature  of  the  author 
of  the  system),  when  sample  books  on  Business  Corres- 
pondence have  been  ordered  on  approval  with  deposit 
of  $1,  subject  to  return: 
Dear  Sir : 

I  have  received  the  dollar  you  sent,  and  enclose  the 
first  instalments  and  full  outline  of  the  Smart  System. 
Notice — 

1.  There  are  no  lessons  or  exercises  to  prepare.  You 
apply  the  suggestion  directly  to  the  letters  you  are  writ- 
ing every  day,  and  if  you  wish  you  may  send  two 
bundles  of  carbon  copies  to  me  for  criticism. 

2.  If  you  want  help  on  special  letters,  I  will  either 


218        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


rewrite  entirely  one  or  two  letters,  or  give  you  twice  a 
general  criticism  of  your  follow-up  system.  This  service 
is  wwth  twice  the  cost  of  the  system. 

I  can't  teach  you  how  to  run  your  business.  But  I 
do  know  what  human  nature  is,  and  how  to  line  up 
words  so  they  will  make  people  send  you  business,  so  far 
as  any  words  will  do  it.  Let  me  add  my  general  knowl- 
edge to  your  special  knowledge  and  win. 

Send  the  remaining  $9  to-day  and  let  us  get  to  work. 
If  you  prefer,  you  may  send  $2  now,  and  $3  a  month 
till  you  have  paid  $12  in  all. 

A  prompt  answer  will  be  appreciated. 

Cordially  yours. 

This  letter  is  followed  by  an  invoice,  and  a  week  later 
by  the  following  letter: 

Dear  Sir: 

Please  let  me  know  by  return  mail  whether  you  will 
keep  the  books  of  the  Smart  System  in  Business  Cor- 
respondence which  you  have  already  received,  and  will 
remit  for  the  balance.  If  I  do  not  hear  from  you  within 
a  week,  I  shall  assume  that  you  want  me  to  draw  on  you. 

Thousands  of  business  men  are  testifying  to  the 
genuine  value  of  this  work,  and  my  services  as  a  letter- 
expert  are  worth  more  than  the  $10  the  System  costs. 
Cordially  yours, 

P.  S. — If  you  will  mail  a  check  this  week,  I  shall  be 
glad  to  send  you  without  charge  any  one  of  my  new 
books.  Dictionary  of  Errors,  How  to  Read  and  What  to 
Read,  or  Business  Letter- Writing.  Let  me  know  which 
you  prefer. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  219 


SEVEN 

TURNING  ADVERTISING  INQUIRIES  INTO 
ORDERS 

Successful  advertising  should  come  as  near  making  the 
sale  on  the  spot  as  possible.  If  the  amount  of  money  is 
not  too  great,  and  sufficient  space  is  taken,  a  postal  order 
will  be  mailed  as  soon  as  the  advertisement  is  read.  To 
effect  that,  the  five  steps  I  have  previously  mentioned 
must  be  without  flaw — attention  attracted,  attention  fixt 
on  something  really  desired,  the  how  of  it  explained, 
proof  offered,  the  price  and  easy  method  of  getting  it 
indicated.  Omission  of  any  one  of  these  steps  will  spoil 
the  advertising. 

If  the  amount  of  money  involved  is  too  large  for  the 
average  man  to  take  the  risk  on  so  small  a  showing,  the 
price  may  better  not  be  given,  but  inquiries  invited.  It 
is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  every  inquiry  costs 
money  to  follow  up,  and  many  inquiries  are  not  nearly 
so  good  as  a  few  orders. 

An  inquiry  may  be  counted  for  the  first  item  only — 
attention.  A  good  answer  to  an  inquiry  must  do  effec- 
tively the  other  four  things — it  must  fix  the  attention, 
and  this  may  be  done  by  showing  a  man  just  why  he 
wants  the  article  or  service  offered;  it  must  show  the 
customer  just  how  the  appliance  or  scheme  works;  it 
must  offer  proof;  last  of  all,  it  must  indicate  the  price 
and  the  easy  way  to  order  and  get  started  on  the  happy 
road  to  possession. 

This  means  a  letter,  first  paragraph  of  four  or  five 
lines  pointing  out  just  why  the  customer  ought  to  be 
interested,  second  paragraph  showing  just  how  the  thing 
applies  to  his  particular  case  and  what  it  will  do  for 
him,  third  paragraph  giving  price  and  method  of  pay- 


220        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ment.  With  this  letter  goes  a  testimonial  page  offering 
proof.  There  are  two  good  kinds  of  testimonials — in- 
dorsements from  well-known  persons  whose  judgment  is 
accepted,  and  signed  statements  from  those  who  have 
tried  the  thing  and  have  been  helped.  Both  are  good — 
the  first  applicable  to  high-class  and  genuine  offerings 
that  are  very  strongly  indorsed,  the  second  for  lower- 
grade  products  or  schemes  for  which  the  very  best  in- 
dorsements can  not  be  commanded.  The  best  indorse- 
ment is  that  of  the  well-known  man  or  woman  who  has 
himself  tried  the  article  and  been  helped.  PROOF  OF 
SOME  SORT  IS  INDISPENSABLE. 

EIGHT 

FOLLOW-UP  LETTERS 

The  science  of  canvassing  by  mail  is  just  beginning 
to  develop  and  we  do  not  know  as  much  about  it  as  we 
shall  in  a  very  few  years. 

In  preparing  a  series  of  follow-up  letters  these  prin- 
ciples are  safe  to  stick  by: 

1.  Before  you  can  argue  with  a  man  you  must  get 
his  attention.  If  you  advertise  and  he  answers  your  ad- 
vertisement, that  is  accomplished.  What  should  be  done 
in  circularizing  a  list  of  names  we  shall  consider  later. 

2.  "When  a  man  has  indicated  that  he  will  listen  to 
what  you  have  to  say,  then  you  should  fill  him  up  with 
the  best  arguments  you  have.  This,  the  principal  follow- 
up  letter,  should  be  long,  as  a  rule.  The  ideal  way  is  to 
put  everything  into  one  letter.  In  any  case,  avoid  just 
as  far  as  possible  separate  circulars.  If  a  man  opens  a 
letter  and  finds  a  handful  of  circulars  inside,  he  is  likely 
to  throw  them  all  into  the  waste-paper  basket.  If  he 
finds  only  one  letter,  he  will  probably  read  it. 

Here  is  a  good  plan :  Print  your  circular  letter  on  one 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  221 


side  of  a  letter  sheet ;  print  your  testimonials  on  one  side 
of  note-size  paper  of  a  different  color;  print  statistical 
circular  matter  or  any  necessary  collection  of  informa- 
tion on  the  second  page  of  a  folder  letter;  tip  (paste) 
the  testimonials  lightly  at  the  top  of  the  letter  in  front, 
to  the  right,  so  that  they  will  not  conceal  the  address 
of  the  letter,  but  can  not  avoid  being  seen.  You  then 
have  only  one  document ;  the  testimonials  have  a  promi- 
nent place  where  they  are  most  likely  to  be  read;  and 
the  circular  information  is  convenient  without  being  ob- 
trusive. 

3.  The  letter  itself  should  be  earnestly  and  convinc- 
ingly written  by  one  who  knows  and  feels  the  value  of 
what  is  to  be  offered.  The  person  who  writes  the  letter 
should  have  been  talking  the  subject  with  success,  and 
should  be  enthusiastic.  If  that  person  does  not  have  the 
skill  to  write  a  good  letter,  he  should  do  the  best  he  can, 
and  then  let  some  one  else  revise  it  for  him. 

The  first  thing  in  such  a  letter  is  to  show  the  reader 
how  he  will  benefit  by  what  you  have  to  offer.  For  ex« 
ample,  suppose  you  are  selling  a  fire-extinguisher;  it  is 
not  enough  to  assume  that  a  man  feels  strongly  the  ad- 
vantage of  such  a  thing.  He  feels  but  vaguely.  You 
must  make  him  feel  vividly. 

Letter  to  Sell  a  Fire-Extinguisher,  Sent  With  Catalog 
on  Receipt  of  Inquiry 

Dear  Sir: 

The  enclosed  catalog  will  fully  describe  the  ^^Sure 
and  Easy''  Fire-Extinguisher,  about  which  you  inquire 
in  your  letter  of  Jan.  10. 

Did  you  ever  have  a  fire  in  your  house  or  store  ?  If 
so,  did  the  insurance  really  make  good  your  loss?  If 
you  had  had  something  handy,  right  on  the  spot,  could 
you  not  have  stopt  the  fire  before  it  did  much  damage  ? 


222        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


You  are  always  the  loser  by  a  fire,  however  well  you 
are  insured,  for  insurance  does  not  cover  injury  to  your 
business,  nor  all  the  discomfort  and  inconvenience  that 
go  even  with  the  smallest  fire. 

Nine-tenths  of  all  fires  could  be  put  out  before  much, 
if  any,  damage  were  done— IF  YOU  HAD  SOME- 
THING AT  HAND  FOR  INSTANT  USE.  The  trouble 
comes  from  the  few  minutes  in  which  you  are  turning  in 
the  fire-alarm,  getting  a  bucket  of  water,  or  running  for 
a  blanket. 

And  then  think  of  the  horror  of  having  your  wife  or 
daughter  or  child,  or  even  your  servant,  burned  to  death 
by  reason  of  dresses  catching  fire ! 

Perhaps  you  do  not  know  that  you  can  prevent  these 
accidents  VERY  EASILY,  and  at  small  cost. 

The  ''Sure  and  Easy''  fire-tube  contains  a  perfectly 
harmless  powder.  It  is  just  large  enough  around  to  fill 
the  hand,  and  hangs  on  the  wall  in  kitchen,  shop,  or  fac- 
tory. The  ring  by  which  it  hangs  is  attached  to  a  fric- 
tion cap.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  catch  hold  of  the  fire 
tube  and  give  it  a  jerk  from  the  hook.  This  pulls  off  the 
cap  and  you  dash  the  powder  over  the  fire,  which  will 
be  instantly  extinguished.  The  heat  liberates  carbonic 
acid  gas  in  large  quantities  and  that  smothers  the  fire. 

This  powder  is  far  superior  to  water  for  many  reasons : 
First,  if  a  lamp  explodes  and  the  oil  catches  fire  you  can 
not  put  out  the  blaze  with  water,  because  the  oil  floats 
on  the  water  and  burns  all  the  more  fiercely ;  second,  you 
can't  put  out  any  blaze  with  water  unless  you  have  a 
drenching  shower,  and  to  get  that  requires  time,  even 
when  you  have  a  good  hose  playing  (water  puts  out  fire 
only  where  it  touches,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  make  it 
touch  many  spots  at  one  time)  ;  third,  water  often  does 
far  more  damage  than  fire  itself,  spoiling  wall-paper  and 
upholstered  furniture,  carpets,  etc.    The  ''Sure  and 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  223 


Easy"  produces  a  gas  that  can  not  possibly  do  any  harm 
to  anything,  and  it  instantly  penetrates  to  every  corner, 
for  gas,  unlike  water,  tends  to  diffuse  and  spread  in  every 
direction. 

What  is  more,  this  fire-extinguisher  is  unobtrusive  and 
occupies  small  space.  You  can  paint  the  tube  the  same 
color  as  the  woodwork,  with  only  the  word  **Fire"  stand- 
ing out  in  red  to  attract  attention.  The  tube  may  hang 
there  unused  for  five  years,  and  the  powder  will  be  just 
as  good  then  as  the  day  you  put  the  tube  in  place. 

That  this  is  a  practical  device  is  testified  to  by  the 
fact  that  tubes  of  this  kind  are  required  on  every  theater- 
stage,  in  every  passenger-car,  in  every  factory,  in  every 
crowded  department  store,  even  when  fire-hose  is  also 
required.  Just  read  a  few  of  the  stories  of  how  these 
fire-tubes  have  saved  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of 
property  and  scores  of  lives! 

There  are  many  inferior  powder  fire-extinguishers  on 
the  market,  of  some  of  which  you  may  have  heard.  The 
other  day  there  was  a  test  at  the  works  of  the  Deering 
Soap  Company.  Four  brands  of  extinguishers  were 
tried.  A  bushel  of  rags  was  saturated  with  a  gallon  of 
gasoline.  After  the  fire  had  been  burning  one  minute 
and  was  a  fierce  blaze,  the  test  was  made.  The  liquid 
extinguishers  produced  no  effect  whatever  on  the  fire. 
The  rival  powder  extinguisher  failed  to  work  because  the 
powder  was  caked  and  would  not  come  out  of  the  tube. 
Age  always  cakes  inferior  powders.  The  tube  of  our 
powder  that  was  used  had  been  hanging  for  two  years 
in  a  damp  place  and  was  all  rusty  on  the  outside,  but  it 
instantly  extinguished  the  fire,  and  it  was  the  only  ex- 
tinguisher that  did. 

You  ought  to  have  a  ^'Sure  and  Easy''  extinguisher  in 
your  kitchen  where  the  cook  can  use  it;  one  or  two  in 
the  cellar  wherever  you  have  a  furnace,  straw,  shavings, 


224        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


or  oil,  and  one  on  the  inside  of  every  closet  door  within 
easy  reach  in  case  a  lamp  explodes,  a  candle  drops  burn- 
ing grease  or  a  lighted  match  touches  a  curtain  or  dress. 

The  ''Sure  and  Easy"  costs  only  $3.  "We  pay  carriage 
to  any  part  of  the  United  States.  We  will  pay  $500 
for  information  of  any  case  in  which  the  ''Sure  and 
Easy"  fails  to  work.  Send  your  order  to-day;  you 
may  have  a  fire  to-morrow. 

Very  truly  yours, 

A  good  testimonial  sheet  is  very  important  with  this 
letter.  Testimonials  should  tell  of  real  experiences  or 
tests  by  well-known  business  houses. 

NINE 

SECOND  FOLLOW-UP  LETTER 

Every  step  in  an  advertising  campaign  should  be  dis- 
tinctive. 

First  comes  the  advertisement  to  attract  attention  (or 
whatever  may  do  that),  short,  sharp,  and  pointed. 

Then  comes  the  first  follow-up  letter — a  full  and  com- 
plete exposition  of  the  subject  in  hand,  with  no  sparing 
of  words. 

The  second  follow-up  letter  has  its  particular  office, 
too.  It  must  force  a  decision.  In  a  certain  case  the  sec- 
ond follow-up  is  a  telegram,  speaking  of  an  exceptionally 
favorable  opportunity  to  buy  at  a  bargain,  and  asking 
for  reply  by  wire.  Tho  costly,  it  is  effective  in  forcing 
a  decision.    It  is  extreme,  however. 

The  second  follow-up  letter  should  be  quite  different 
from  the  first.  It  should  be  shorter,  on  different-colored 
paper,  with  different  style  of  type — otherwise  the  man 
who  gets  it  will  say,  "Oh,  another  letter  about  that 
project — I  know  all  about  it  already 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  225 


The  style  in  which  the  letter  is  written  and  its  pur- 
pose are  different,  too.  Objections  must  be  answered — 
yet  without  formally  stating  these  objections,  lest  you 
suggest  them  to  the  customer  for  the  first  time.  Besides, 
it  should  try  to  induce  a  decision  at  once. 

There  must  be  no  repetition  of  what  has  been  said  al- 
ready, for  the  moment  he  scents  repetition  the  reader  is 
likely  to  throw  the  letter  down.  Tho  it  harps  on  the 
same  old  theme,  it  must  be  contrived  to  seem  to  be  fresh. 
A  second  follow-up  letter  is  too  often  a  mere  repetition 
of  what  has  gone  before.  Writers  do  not  reflect  that  it 
has  a  purpose  of  its  own,  and  it  must  have  a  well-devel- 
oped style  of  its  own. 

A  good  second  follow-up  letter  is  probably  more  diffi- 
cult to  write  than  a  first,  for  there  is  more  art  required. 
It  must  be  crisp  and  entertaining.  The  first  letter  gets 
the  '^easy"  ones;  the  second  is  intended  to  get  those  who 
are  not  so  easy.  At  the  same  time  any  mistake  in  the 
first  part  of  the  campaign  may  entirely  spoil  the  effect 
of  the  last  letter.  It  is  the  last  link  in  the  chain,  and  of 
no  use  whatever  unless  the  other  links  are  sound. 

Therefore,  before  writing  a  second  follow-up  letter 
carefully  study  the  impression  made  by  what  has  gone 
before,  and  adapt  the  new  letter  as  closely  as  possible  to 
completing  the  impression. 

Illustrative  Letters 
1 

Dear  Sir: 

^'If  I  had  only  done  it  sooner !"  exclaims  the  man  who 
has  taken  no  precautions  against  fire  until  the  fire  occurs. 

Have  you  even  a  Fire-Tube  at  hand  to  check  a  little 
blaze  if  one  occurred  in  your  house  or  place  of  business  ? 
Is  it  not  culpable  carelessness  to  put  the  matter  off? 


226        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Your  insurance  will  not  cover  your  loss — it  can't  as 
insurance  business  is  now  done.  And  what  inconveni- 
ence, worry,  and  possible  personal  injury  to  yourself  or 
family  may  result  from  neglect! 

You  know  our  ''Sure  and  Easy"  fire-tube  has  been 
thoroughly  tested  for  the  past  five  years.  It  is  quick; 
it  is  positive;  it  injures  no  fabric,  paper,  or  furniture. 
Anybody  can  use  it.  It  is  always  good  till  you  have  a 
fire.  Nothing  could  be  simpler,  nothing  cheaper.  The 
insurance  it  gives  you  costs  you  only  the  interest  on 
your  small  investment — remember  that — not  the  whole 
outlay.    "What  is  the  interest  on  $3,  $6,  or  $9. 

Better  send  us  a  trial  order  to-day.  If  you  are  a 
doubter,  speak  up  and  we  will  soon  convince  you.  Just 
give  us  a  chance  by  writing  to-day. 

Very  truly  yours, 

2 

Dear  Sir: 

For  the  last  time  you  can  get  one  free. 

We  mean  the  handiest,  simplest,  most  unique  little 
filing-cabinet  that  ever  saved  the  time  and  temper  of  a 
busy  publisher. 

We  mean  an  ''idea-classifier" — a  "price-list  pre- 
server"— a  "clipping-saver," — so  convenient  and  com- 
pact that  it  has  induced  15,000  of  the  brightest,  brainiest 
business  men  to  use  it  in  preference  to  scrap-books  and 
pigeon-holes!  A  busy  man's  store-house,  in  fact,  that 
will  keep  and  arrange  forever  nearly  all  your  small 
papers — all  the  precious  little  scraps,  memos,  and  nota- 
tions that  you  so  often  mislay,  yet  so  frequently  need 
to  refer  to — right  within  30  seconds'  reach! 

Speak  now ! — for  this  is  your  last  chance.  And  when 
this  offer  is  finally  withdrawn  February  first,  it  will  be 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  227 


withdrawn  for  all  time.  Not  even  J.  P.  Morgan  him- 
self can  get  one  free  after  that. 

For  ^^THE  BUSINESS  MAN''  has  decided  that  from 
now  on  no  more  desk-premiums  of  this  kind  shall  be 
offered  with  this  national  business  man's  magazine. 
And  only  to  the  ^^chosen  few,"  the  former  ^^BUSINESS 
MAN"  subscribers,  the  friends  and  customers  of  Mr. 
Smith,  are  we  writing  this  letter,  offering  them  this  one 
more  chance — this  final  opportunity  to  get  one  of  these 
convenient  mental-treasure-boxes  and  idea-savings  banks 
for  nothing. 

So  it  is  free  to  you  until  February  the  first — free 
through  your  year's  subscription  to  '^THE  BUSINESS 
MAN,"  the  business  magazine.  And  best  of  all,  even 
^^THE  BUSINESS  MAN"  is  no  expense.  For  tho  you 
place  $2  in  your  subscription,  it  is  not  $2  spent.  Not  by 
a  long  shot!  It  is  $2  invested — invested  where  it  will 
be  returned  to  you  many  times  over  in  the  course  of  a 
year. 

And  consider  this ! — every  single  issue  of  ^  ^  THE 
BUSINESS  MAN"  during  19—  (260  pages  in  every 
number,  note  you)  will  be  packed  with  money-making 
ideas.  Famous  business  Napoleons,  sales-managers,  and 
business  engineers  known  the  world  over  will  contribute 
money-making  articles  on  all  phases  of  business-getting 
and  business-keeping; — on  buying,  selling,  advertising, 
credits,  factory  costs,  etc.  And  every  individual  article 
will  be  a  live,  stimulating  dynamo  that  will  help  make 
your  business  hum. 

But  only  a  few  Brain  Boxes  are  left,  and  you  will 
have  to  act  to-day  if  you  want  to  get  yours. 

"Wrap  a  $2  postal  order  in  the  circular  enclosed,  sign 
your  name  and  address  in  a  good  clear  hand,  and  post 
it  to  us  while  you  have  it  in  mind. 

A  full  year's  subscription  to  -'^THE  BUSINESS 


228        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


MAN''  and  a  Brain  Box  dispatched  to  your  address, 
remember,  and  your  satisfaction  guaranteed  or  your 
money  back. 

Yours  very  truly, 
^^THE  BUSINESS  MAN"  COMPANY. 

This  letter  has  the  touch  of  genius  in  the  tone  of  press- 
ing personal  appeal,  the  fetching  imagination  with  which 
it  is  written. 

It  also  illustrates  the  rather  bad  habit  of  always  put- 
ting in  capital  letters  the  name  of  your  brand.  I  doubt 
the  usefulness  of  it. 

TEN 

STATIONERY  AND  PRINTING  FOR  CIRCULAR 
LETTERS 

The  conventional  advice  is  to  get  the  best — that  good 
stationery  and  printing  always  pay. 

But  business  men  know  that  this  is  not  true.  It  often 
happens  that  poor  stationery  and  printing  pay  better 
than  good  in  certain  classes  of  mail-order  business,  be- 
cause the  class  of  people  reached  feel  more  at  home  with 
the  poor,  and  get  an  impression  from  it  that  the  article 
offered  is  somewhere  within  their  range,  about  which 
they  need  not  feel,    That's  too  good  for  me." 

Another  thing:  Stationery  and  printing  in  the  mail- 
order business  are  big  items  of  expense. 

Good  taste  and  good  judgment  in  choosing  are  more 
important  than  spending  money. 

As  pretty  pictures  and  handsome  designs  are  now  con- 
ceded in  magazine  advertising  to  bring  few  orders,  so  I 
believe  costly  circulars  and  expensive  paper  do  little  real 
business  in  circularizing. 

The  best  way  to  judge  one's  standard  is  to  consider 
what  kinds  of  stationery  and  printing  are  commonly  used 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  229 


by  one 's  customers.  If  they  are  business  men  and  write 
on  average  business  paper,  average  paper  I  believe  to  be 
good  enough  to  write  to  them  on.  If  they  are  small  shop- 
keepers and  write  on  pads  with  a  pencil,  the  very 
cheapest  stationery,  if  got  up  in  a  neat  and  businesslike 
style,  is  good  enough.  If  they  are  bankers  and  brokers 
who  write  only  on  the  best  bond,  with  engraved  heads, 
it  would  be  a  sad  error  not  to  reply  to  them  in  the  same 
style. 

Bankers  and  brokers  should  use  the  best  white  bond 
(colored  paper  is  taboo),  with  severe,  neat  heads,  en- 
graved if  possible.  Bond  paper  good  enough  for  any 
should  be  bought  for  12  cents  a  pound,  however,  and  the 
weight  need  never  exceed  six  pounds  to  a  ream  of  500 
letter-sheets,  while  five  pounds  is  a  good  weight. 

Bond  paper  costing  from  6  cents  to  12  cents  is  very 
common,  and  the  weight  is  usually  only  four  pounds  to 
the  ream  of  500  letter-sheets. 

For  process  letters  ^^flaf  stock  is  much  better  than 
bond,  because  it  gives  a  better  match  between  the  body 
of  the  letter  and  the  typewritten  address.  Moreover, 
as  it  is  cheaper  per  pound,  a  heavier  weight  is  possible. 
Paper  five  pounds  to  the  ream  is  the  lightest  that  should 
be  used. 

I  employ  a  very  high-grade  bleached  manila  that  costs 
me  less  than  6  cents  a  pound,  and  I  get  more  satis- 
faction from  it  in  every  way  than  from  any  12-cent 
bond.  Cheap  manila  will  not  do.  It  reminds  one  too 
much  of  wrapping-paper.  But  there  are  good  pure 
white  manilas.  I  prefer  a  slight  tint,  as  of  parchment, 
amber,  or  even  light  blue,  but  the  tint  should  be  faint 
and  not  at  all  pronounced.  A  faint  tint  helps  to  get  a 
good    match"  in  a  process-letter. 

In  circular  work  expensive  papers  usually  do  not  pay, 
nor  do  I  believe  much  in  elaborate  pictures  printed  in 


230        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


many  colors.  Neatness  and  general  good  style  are  the 
important  things.  What  is  said  counts  much  more  than 
the  manner  of  printing. 

It  undoubtedly  pays,  however,  to  employ  the  latest, 
fashionable  faces  of  type.  If  a  business  man  can  not  get 
these  from  his  printer,  it  will  pay  him  to  buy  two  or 
three  good  new  faces  for  his  particular  work. 

Another  important  thing  is  ink  and  presswork.  Many 
printers  buy  cheap  ink,  and  it  will  often  pay  an  adver- 
tiser either  to  buy  his  own  ink,  or  make  his  printer  buy 
a  certain  grade  of  ink  which  he  specifies  for  his  work. 

Then  the  presswork  should  be  done  with  a  good  pres- 
sure, and  ink  enough  used  to  cover  the  face  of  the  type 
completely.  Large  black  surfaces  with  the  paper  show- 
ing through  where  the  ink  ought  to  be,  are  very  objec- 
tionable. This  ^'gray''  printing  is  due  largely  to  poor 
ink,  and  then  to  poor  presswork.  Ink  and  presswork 
cost  very  little  any  way,  and  the  best  is  none  too  good. 

Then  it  will  pay  to  tone  down  intense  blacks  by  mixing 
in  15  per  cent,  to  20  per  cent,  red  or  blue,  which  softens 
the  color  and  harmonizes  the  work,  making  it  far  easier 
to  the  eye. 

Likewise  the  tint  of  the  paper  should  be  soft,  and  tone 
in  with  the  ink.  A  blue  white  is  hateful,  and  so  is  a 
dirty  white.  Natural  tint  or  a  warm,  pure  white  is  best. 
The  latter  is  the  popular  color  to-day. 

ELEVEN 
PREMIUMS 

I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  premiums  have  an  im- 
portant part  in  doing  business  by  mail.  They  may  be 
overworked,  but  the  argument  of  some  houses,  that  the 
buyer  pays  for  the  premium  and  gets  inferior  goods,  is 
not  sound. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  231 


An  ideal  premium  is  one  that  many  people  want  but 
which  costs  the  giver  very  little — far  less  than  it  would 
cost  the  retail  purchaser.  For  example,  New  York  Pub- 
lic Opinion  used  with  the  greatest  success  a  portfolio  of 
pictures  that  actually  cost  20  cents  but  would  fairly 
retail  for  $5.  The  $4.80  saved  the  purchaser  was  a  great 
business-builder,  and  it  was  the  cheapest  kind  of 
business-builder  that  could  be  used.  A  bookcase  costing 
$1,  but  worth  at  retail  $10  if  given  with  a  $40  set  of 
books  would  be  an  admirable  way  of  stimulating  sales, 
and  a  cheap  one. 

Many  business  men  give  a  discount  of  2  per  cent,  for 
cash.  On  a  $10  collection  I  offer  a  book  that  costs  me 
10  cents  (1  per  cent.)  all  told,  but  which  is  worth  at  re- 
tail 75  cents  (71^  per  cent.).  It  costs  me  less  and  pleases 
the  customer  better.  When  I  want  a  quick  collection  I 
threaten  in  the  body  of  my  letter  and  soothe  in  a  post- 
script by  the  offer  of  a  premium  for  immediate  pay- 
ment. The  letter  is  very  short  and  simple,  but  it  pulls 
the  money  in. 

"When  you  have  to  write  often  to  a  dealer,  for  example, 
about  something  of  which  you  can  say  very  little  that  is 
new,  the  only  possible  way  to  keep  up  the  interest  of 
your  letters  is  to  attach  some  premium  or  special  offer 
of  which  you  can  talk  hard  and  strong,  and  that  will 
rouse  an  interest  which  you  can  carry  over  to  your  own 
product  of  which  you  speak  hard  and  strong  in  the  last 
part  of  your  letter.  A  premium  gives  the  possibility  of 
constant  novelty. 

The  best  premium  is  usually  one  of  your  own  manu- 
facture, which  costs  you  the  minimum.  A  really  valu- 
able or  costly  premium  is  theoretically  and  practically  a 
grave  mistake. 

In  using  a  premium,  any  talk  about  it  except  to  attract 
or  fix  attention  is  also  a  mistake.    When  the  importance 


232       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


of  the  premium  overshadows  the  article  to  be  sold,  it  is 
high  time  to  cut  the  premium  out  entirely.* 

In  general,  a  premium  is  a  solid,  material  form  of  the 
advertising  catch-line,  and  it  is  just  as  well  worth  while 
for  the  advertising  manager  to  spend  his  time  hunting 
for  a  good  premium  as  for  a  good  advertising  catch-line. 

Letter  to  Get  a  Trial  Wholesale  Order  on  Approval — 
Premium 

FREE 

One  Dozen  Whisk  Brushes  with  Broom  Order 

Lee  &  Stewart,  Ltd. 
Halifax 

Dear  Sir : 

Your  customers  want  GOOD  HOUSE-BROOMS,  the 
best  brooms  made. 

We  can  supply  what  are  unquestionably  the  best 
brooms  made  in  Canada  for  exactly  what  you  are  paying 
for  ordinary  common  brooms. 

Our  brooms  are  unusually  free  from  seeds. 

They  don't  have  hard  sticks  instead  of  broom-corn. 

The  color  is  perfectly  natural. 

Our  '^Little  Polly"  is  a  light  broom  with  a  dandy 
handle — color  won 't  come  off  in  years,  something  that  is 
true  of  no  other  broom-handle  we  ever  saw. 

We  want  to  get  acquainted  with  you — ^we  want  to 
number  you  among  our  friends,  and  to  that  end  we  are 
prepared  to  make  a  special  LIBERAL  OFFER  for  a 
trial  order. 

We  will  include  ONE  DOZEN  GOOD  WHISK 
BROOMS  free.    Yes,  FREE. 


*  The  letter  on  page  226  would  be  considered  by  most  publishers  as 
a  fair  illustration  of  this  fault.  It  was  successful  in  selling  filing- 
cabinets — but  how  much  value  would  the  subscriptions  have?  Each 
man  must  judge  for  himself. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  233 

On  five-dozen  order  (assorted  as  you  like)  we  pay 
freight. 

If  you  like  us  and  wish  to  keep  on  and  use  25  dozen 
at  various  times  within  a  year,  we  will  take  off  4  pe^'  cent, 
special  discount  for  quantity. 

We  ship  AT  OUR  OWN  RISK— you  can  send  back 
at  our  expense  anything,  at  any  time,  which  you  do  not 
find  entirely  satisfactory. 

So  it  costs  you  absolutely  nothing,  involves  no  risk 
whatever,  for  you  to  make  the  trial,  and  you  may  be  so 
well  pleased  you  will  be  sorry  you  didn't  know  us  years 
ago. 

Just  fill  out  enclosed  return  post-card  and  let  us  have 
it  by  the  next  mail.  Won't  you?  Ask  your  wife. 
She'll  tell  you  to.  Yours  for  Good  Brooms, 

TWELVE 

WHAT  CAN  AND  WHAT  CAN  NOT  BE  DONE  BY 

MAIL 

Many  failures  are  made  because  people  do  not  under- 
stand the  range  of  possible  accomplishments — what  can 
and  what  can  not  be  done. 

First,  letters  are  at  best  far  weaker  than  personal  can- 
vassing, so  if  calling  on  customers  will  get  75  per  cent, 
of  order-s,  writing  letters  should  get  about  7  per  cent. 
Canvassing  letters  have  to  be  sent  out  500  or  1,000  or 
more  at  a  time  to  make  the  results  observable,  while  ten 
calls  will  give  a  good  ^4ine"  on  any  proposition. 

Canvassing  by  mail  has  the  advantage  that  it  may  be 
done  on  a  small  or  a  large  scale  with  proportionate  re- 
sults, and  that  the  genius  of  one  man  may  be  sufficient 
for  success,  whereas  a  personal  canvass  requires  an  or- 
ganization of  men  of  talent,  and  such  an  organization  is 


234       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


very  difficult  to  secure  in  the  first  place,  and  still  harder 
to  maintain. 

The  disadvantages  of  canvassing  by  mail  are  that  re- 
sults are  limited.  The  number  of  periodicals  in  which  it 
will  pay  to  advertise  is  invariably  circumscribed.  Ten 
per  cent,  of  paying  replies  to  a  circular  letter,  even  on 
a  very  low-priced  proposition,  is  usually  the  extreme,  and 
5  per  cent,  is  considered  good.  On  a  $10  proposition 
1  per  cent,  is  fair,  2  per  cent,  most  excellent.  With 
such  a  proportion,  the  number  of  names  you  can  get  is 
not  large  enough  for  maximum  results  as  compared 
with  personal  canvassing,  in  which  the  percentage  of 
returns  is  much  higher. 

When  two  or  more  different  persons  have  to  get  to- 
gether to  decide  a  question,  it  is  often  very  difficult  to 
accomplish  anything  by  letter,  because  you  can  not  possi- 
bly know  who  is  the  key  to  the  situation — the  man  who 
in  reality  has  to  be  persuaded.  In  soliciting  newspapers 
I  found  the  best  letters  ineffective  because  the  business 
manager,  the  managing  editor,  and  the  proprietor  usually 
had  to  agree  before  an  order  was  given.  Personal  calls 
on  these  same  people  brought  orders  because  we  could 
then  find  out  which  one  was  favorably  disposed  and 
where  the  hitch  was,  and  use  the  favorably  disposed  man 
to  overcome  the  man  who  made  the  hitch.  UNLESS 
YOU  KNOW  THE  SITUATION,  you  are  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage, and  the  letter-method  is  notoriously  blind. 
Moreover,  it  applies  more  to  types  than  to  individuals. 

People  who  read  much,  such  as  editors  or  teachers,  are 
proverbially  hard  to  reach,  because  they  become  so  cal- 
lous to  written  impression  that  the  best  letters  barely 
prick  their  intellectual  hide.  As  such  people  see  callers 
seldom,  a  personal  call  upon  them  takes  them  upon  their 
weak  side,  and  they  yield  easily.  The  reverse  is  true  in 
the  case  of  commercial  travelers. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  235 


If  it  is  possible  to  get  an  order  from  every  second  man 
or  house  you  visit,  personal  solicitation  is  far  cheaper 
than  mail  solicitation.  If  orders  are  much  scattered, 
mail  solicitation  is  obviously  cheapest.  With  most 
manufacturers  a  combination  of  both  methods  is  usually 
desirable — personal  solicitation  in  towns,  letter  solicita- 
tion in  the  country  or  places  where  it  is  not  economical 
to  travel. 

In  covering  a  given  territory  by  mail,  it  is  necessary 
to  count  at  least  ten  letters  to  every  single  personal  visit, 
and  each  letter  must  have  something  fresh  about  it  at 
that. 

If  a  subject  is  at  all  out  of  the  ordinary,  it  is  impor- 
tant to  prepare  customers  for  personal  visits  by  letter 
education,  since  it  is  much  easier  to  put  a  clever  argu- 
ment in  writing  than  to  teach  it  to  a  solicitor.  The 
average  canvasser  or  traveling  man  is  usually  not  suc- 
cessful except  with  a  very  simple  story  which  he  can 
repeat  many  times.  It  is  easier  to  mail  a  million  letters 
than  to  teach  an  argument  to  one  hundred  canvassers. 

Importance  of  Testing  Every  Letter  or  Piece  of 
Advertising 

People  may  say  what  they  like,  advertising  has  an  ele- 
ment of  chance  in  it  which  can  not  be  eliminated.  It  is 
more  or  less  of  a  gamble  in  one  sense  of  the  word  only. 
This  may  fail  and  that  may  succeed,  and  no  man  can 
tell  in  advance  what  the  result  will  be ;  but  it  is  true  of 
all  business  that  some  ventures  pay  and  some  do  not. 
We  try,  on  the  smallest  possible  scale,  each  new  idea. 
Those  that  succeed  on  a  small  scale  we  try  on  a  larger, 
and  those  that  fail  in  the  experimental  stage  we  charge 
off  to  the  general  advertising  expenditure. 

By  systematic  experiment  it  is  possible  to  prove 
clearly  whether  a  thing  can  be  advertised  or  not.    If  you 


236        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


prove  that  it  can  not  be  profitably  advertised,  that  is  one 
form  of  success.  If  you  find  out  by  repeated  experi- 
ments what  is  the  best  way  of  advertising  without  risking 
more  than  is  absolutely  necessary,  then  you  can  go  out 
on  a  large  scale  and  be  sure  of  final  profit. 

It  is  possible  to  find  out  at  small  expenditure,  say  $50 
to  $500,  whether  a  successful  way  can  be  found  or  not. 
If  you  are  not  to  succeed,  you  want  to  know  that  just 
as  much  or  even  more.  The  trouble  is  that  many  busi- 
ness men  think  everything  looks  promising,  don't  see 
how  they  can  fail,  and  go  ahead  as  if  they  knew  they 
would  succeed.  Then  to  their  surprize  they  fail,  and 
where  they  might  have  found  out  for  $50,  they  have 
spent  $500,  or  if  the  experiment  could  have  been  made 
for  $500,  they  have  spent  $5,000. 

In  the  case  of  every  circular  letter  a  test  is  also  im- 
portant. One  concern  that  sends  out  four  million  letters 
a  year  keeps  one  man  busy  all  the  time  writing  letters 
and  circulars,  and  trying  them  out.  Not  one  letter  in 
ten  really  pays.  But  when  the  one  out  of  the  ten  can 
be  sent  to  a  list  of  from  five  thousand  to  five  hundred 
thousand,  a  good  profit  is  made  out  of  it. 

Futility  of  the  Conventional  FoUow-Up 

There  seem  to  be  three  steps  in  the  development  of  a 
business  man  toward  acquiring  a  proper  follow-up  by 
letter. 

A  vast  number  of  business  men  pay  little  or  no  atten- 
tion to  answering  inquiries.  Many  letters  they  do  not 
answer  at  all.  "When  necessary  they  write  a  few  words 
themselves  with  a  pen.  The  first  sign  of  progress  seems 
to  be  buying  a  typewriter  and  employing  a  typist.  This 
provides  the  machinery  for  answering  all  letters  that 
come  in ;  but  thousands  who  do  have  this  machinery  for 
answering  letters  do  not  go  any  further,  that  is,  they 
never  follow  up  the  inquiries  they  receive. 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  237 


The  second  step  seems  usually  to  be  the  writing  of  a 
brief  letter  asking  why  the  first  one  was  not  answered. 
This  is  developed  often  into  a  series  of  three  letters,  or 
possibly  five.  The  business  man  applies  to  an  adver- 
tising man  or  letter-expert  to  write  for  him  a  series  of 
follow-up  letters.  The  first  answer  to  an  inquiry  is  a 
salesmanlike  letter,  accompanied  when  necessary  with  a 
circular  or  catalog  and  testimonials  or  proof  of  some  sort, 
and  provision  for  easy  ordering.  But  the  second  and 
third  letters  written  under  such  conditions  almost  in- 
variably are  weak  repetitions  of  the  first  letter,  and 
observation  will  show  that  they  bring  little  or  no  busi- 
ness. 

I  would  never  employ  any  expert  to  write  a  series  of 
three  letters  for  me  at  one  time.  A  man  exhausts  him- 
self in  writing  the  first  letter,  if  he  makes  that  letter  what 
he  ought  to,  and  the  succeeding  letters  simply  can  not  be 
of  real  value. 

The  only  way  to  get  a  good  second  letter  is  to  wait 
until  you  can  think  of  some  quite  new  method  of  making 
an  appeal,  and  going  out  the  second  time  with  even  more 
vigor,  more  completeness,  and  cleverer  devices  than  the 
first  time.  Test  that  letter  just  as  the  first  is  tested,  and 
if  it  doesn't  pull,  certainly  do  not  continue  to  send  it 
out.    Drop  it  and  try  to  think  of  some  other  scheme. 

Making  an  Argument  in  Bits 

"When  the  importance  of  the  business  is  such  that  it 
necessarily  takes  the  customer  some  time  to  make  up  his 
mind,  as,  for  example,  when  an  expensive  machine  is  to  be 
bought  for  which  money  has  to  be  specially  provided,  or 
a  regular  customer  of  a  competitor  placing  orders  all  the 
time  has  to  be  won  over  to  a  new  concern,  or  anything 
that  takes  time  to  be  decided,  a  series  of  letters  is  in- 
evitably required,  just  as  a  salesman  will  go  and  talk 


238        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


about  the  matter  a  little  to-day,  and  a  little  more  the 
next,  and  so  on. 

In  that  case  it  is  necessary  to  get  the  attention  of  the 
prospective  customer  by  some  original  advertising 
device,  and  once  that  has  been  secured,  the  extensive 
selling  argument  must  be  made  a  little  at  a  time,  as  the 
mind  of  the  customer  can  digest  it,  with  artful  repe- 
titions so  that  none  of  the  points  are  forgotten,  and 
finally  at  the  right  time  a  determined  effort  made  to 
close.  This  is  merely  spreading  the  original  sales-argu- 
ment over  a  period  of  time,  but  the  whole  will  corre- 
spond to  the  single  complete  effort  in  one  letter  when  it 
is  possible  by  one  letter  to  close  a  sale. 

Seasonal  Canvassing 

A  list  of  names  obtained  by  advertising  may  often  be 
worked  again  for  years,  on  the  general  theory  that  if  a 
man  is  not  ready  to  buy  this  year,  next  autumn  he  may 
be  in  the  market,  and  if  he  is  you  should  be  on  hand  to 
take  his  order.  Also,  if  one  offer  did  not  quite  fetch 
him  perhaps  some  slightly  different  offer  will  be  more 
successful.  Or  it  may  be  that  he  was  too  busy  to  read 
your  first  letter  and  will  get  your  second,  third,  fourth, 
or  fifth  at  some  psychological  moment  when  his  faculties 
will  respond.  But  in  all  such  cases,  each  letter  should  be 
carefully  thought  out  on  its  own  basis,  no  reference 
usually  should  be  made  to  anything  gone  before,  and 
the  efficacy  of  the  letter  proved  before  it  is  sent  out  to 
more  than  500  or  1,000. 

Assignment  XX.    Executing  a  Sales  Campaign 

The  preparation  made  in  the  preceding  assignment 
we  will  now  carry  out  in  detail  with  a  view  to  making 
it  win. 

Hard  thinking  is  absolutely  necessary  to  business 


LETTERS  AND  ADVERTISING  239 


success,  and  we  must  learn  to  do  a  little  work  with 
extreme  care  and  thought  rather  than  much  work  super- 
ficially.  The  work  of  this  assignment  done  superficially 
can  be  nothing  but  a  failure.  Almost  an  unlimited 
amount  of  time  can  be  put  into  an  intensive  study,  going 
to  the  possible  customers  in  person,  talking  to  them  so 
as  to  get  new  points  of  view  or  new  phrases,  and  then 
rewriting  the  few  important  lines  which  are  our  task. 
This  will  be  a  circular  letter  to  be  mailed  to  a  list. 

First,  we  will  prepare  a  paragraph  to  create  desire 
for  the  general  thing  or  idea  which  is  the  object  of  our 
sales  effort. 

Second,  we  will  prepare  a  paragraph  briefly  stating 
in  what  way  the  thing  we  have  to  offer  will  fulfil  the 
desire  we  have  created. 

Third,  we  will  prepare  a  paragraph  giving  the  best 
proof  we  can  gather,  and  this  may  be  supplemented  by 
a  circular  containing  a  small  collection  of  good  testi- 
monials or  proofs  of  some  concrete  kind. 

Fourth,  we  will  prepare  a  plan  for  making  ordering 
easy,  safe,  and  quick,  with  an  order  card  if  necessary, 
and  a  clinching  paragraph  to  close. 

Each  of  these  items  should  be  made  the  sole  study  of 
not  less  than  one  day,  after  a  preparatory  day  spent  on 
the  corresponding  section  in  the  text. 

Then  we  will  reshape  our  advertisement,  and  after 
doing  so  prepare  letters  to  turn  the  inquiries  received 
into  orders.  This  will  be  a  new,  complete  sales  letter 
based  on  our  circular. 

Finally,  let  us  plan  a  sales  letter,  new  in  character 
and  wording,  with  which  we  use  a  small  premium  to  get 
quick  action. 

A  month  may  well  be  spent  in  doing  this  assignment 
over  and  over  until  this  one  type  of  letter  on  this  one 
subject  can  be  written  supremely  well. 


240         HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Success  with  this  work  will  depend  to  a  large  extent 
on  selecting  a  line  of  business  or  a  particular  subject 
for  sales-letter  writing  on  which  the  student  can  find 
sufBcient  material.  Those  who  have  had  business  ex- 
perience may  choose  the  lines  of  business  they  know; 
but  those  who  have  not  may  perhaps  best  take  up  the 
preparation  of  circulars  and  letters  to  sell  this  book. 

At  the  end  of  Part  V  on  Personal  Salesmanship  will 
be  found  a  complete  canvass  for  the  sale  of  this  book, 
and  through  the  preceding  pages  of  the  text  there  are 
numerous  letters  that  were  actually  used  for  a  similar 
object. 

The  most  useful  material,  however,  will  be  that  which 
the  student  can  find  for  himself  through  his  careful 
study  of  the  book,  and  then  going  out  and  canvassing 
business  men  and  others  to  purchase  it.  The  sales-letter 
writer  will  never  succeed  until  he  forms  the  habit  of 
going  out  to  see  people  with  his  own  eyes  and  getting 
his  information  at  first  hand.  It  is  only  first-hand  in- 
formation that  can  be  fully  relied  on. 


PART  III 
MEECHANDISING 


241 


MERCHANDISING 


Merchandising  consists  in  finding  out  what  people 
want,  and  where  they  want  it,  then  in  producing  the 
goods  or  services  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  and  finally 
in  selling  them  at  a  profit  by  salesmanship  and  adver- 
tising. Unless  the  first  two  conditions  are  right,  no  per- 
manent success  can  be  expected  from  the  selling  end, 
however  clever  it  may  be.  Making  people  take  indiffer- 
ent goods  at  a  high  price  may  show  successful  salesman- 
ship, but  it  is  very  poor  merchandising,  for  it  is  certain 
that  sooner  or  later  the  sins  of  these  people  will  find 
them  out  and  they  will  pay  the  penalty.  No  more  miser- 
able man  exists  to-day  than  John  D.  Rockefeller,  with 
all  his  wealth.  "While  he  got  the  money,  he  finds  him- 
self in  the  peculiar  position  of  not  being  able  to  buy 
that  for  which  he  got  the  money.  Money  is  an  absolute 
dead  weight  unless  you  can  make  it  buy  what  you  want. 

A  Good  Business  in  a  Good  Location 

The  first  condition  of  commercial  success  lies  in  fur- 
nishing people  what  they  really  want,  supplying  some 
need  of  their  natures;  and  closely  wrapt  up  with  that 
is  getting  a  good  location.  A  German  woman  with  her 
husband  came  to  New  York  a  few  years  ago  and  opened 
a  rooming-house.  It  was  in  a  very  convenient  position 
where  the  demand  was  strong.  It  had  neither  taste  nor 
unusual  cleanliness,  two  of  the  things  that  make  a 
rooming-house  successful,  but  it  did  have  a  well-chosen 
location.  This  German  woman,  speaking  broken  Eng- 
lish, and  ugly  in  appearance,  appreciated  this  and 
rented  another  house  in  a  good  location.  In  fourteen 
years  she  was  able  to  operate  three  houses,  and  owned 

243 


244        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


two  of  them.  In  most  retail  businesses,  location  is  the 
most  important  point.  In  national  businesses,  location 
counts  for  less.  A  paper  published  in  Augusta,  Maine, 
attained  the  largest  circulation  of  any  periodical  in  its 
day.  Location  at  a  central  point  like  New  York  or 
Chicago  is  a  good  thing,  but  it  is  not  essential.  Chicago 
has  the  mail-order  houses  in  largest  number  because  it 
is  a  nearly  universal  railroad-center,  every  express  com- 
pany but  one  operating  direct  lines  out  of  Chicago  with 
minimum  rates,  while  shipments  out  of  New  York  more 
frequently  have  to  be  transferred  to  other  lines. 

Neither  is  it  a  matter  of  what  people  ought  to  want,  it 
is  what  they  do  want.  It  is  partly  a  matter  of  making 
them  take  the  right  point  of  view,  but  primarily  it  is  a 
matter  of  their  unconscious  needs  at  a  given  time,  with  a 
given  personal  development,  and  a  given  attitude  of 
mind  which  has  become  characteristic  of  the  nation  or  the 
community.  "What  would  be  good  business  in  the  United 
States  might  not  be  good  business  in  England  or  France ; 
and  what  is  good  business  in  Illinois  often  is  no  business 
at  all  in  New  England.  Even  adjoining  cities  differ. 
We  must  know  conditions  as  they  really  exist  at  a  given 
time  in  a  given  place  before  we  know  whether  a  given 
business  is  capable  of  genuine  and  permanent  success 
or  not.  Salesmanship  and  advertising  are  useless  until 
those  points  are  satisfactorily  settled. 

Classes  of  Businesses 

Merchandising  in  general  is  divided  into  three  classes, 
manufacturing,  wholesaling  or  jobbing,  and  retailing. 
Manufacturing  is  usually  of  some  specialty,  or  of  a  line 
of  goods  (different  articles  of  the  same  general  kind)  ; 
wholesaling  or  jobbing  is  usually  central  distribution 
of  many  different  articles  to  dealers  who  will  resell  at 
retail,  or  to  very  large  users  (it  depends  almost  entirely 


MERCHANDISING 


245 


on  the  convenience  and  saving  in  cost  of  packing,  ship- 
ping, and  collecting  pay  for  the  goods)  ;  and  finally 
retailing  is  selling  in  small  lots  to  actual  consumers. 
One  jobber  might  furnish  a  grocer  with  all  or  nearly  all 
the  different  kinds  of  goods  he  might  wish  to  sell, 
whereas  if  the  retailer  had  to  buy  these  goods  from  fifty 
different  manufacturers  it  would  consume  a  great  amount 
of  time  to  do  the  buying.  He  would  have  to  have  fifty 
different  small  shipments  instead  of  one  big,  general 
freight  shipment,  and  many  small  shipments  are  always 
expensive,  and  instead  of  paying  one  bill  he  would  have 
to  pay  fifty,  and  that  might  be  unsafe  for  the  manu- 
facturer, for  it  is  both  difficult  and  expensive  to  collect 
small  accounts.  At  the  same  time  the  wholesaler  can 
not  sell  to  the  consumer,  because  he  must  sell  to  the 
dealer  at  wholesale  prices,  and  if  consumers  could  get 
wholesale  prices  they  would  not  pay  retail  prices;  so, 
to  protect  the  small  dealers,  the  wholesalers  usually 
refuse  absolutely  to  sell  to  consumers  at  all. 

Modern  changes  and  variations  on  this  old  and  well- 
established  chain  have  become  numerous. 

First,  the  large  department  stores  have  united  several 
different  retail  businesses  under  one  roof,  as  a  dry  goods 
store,  a  furniture  store,  a  jewelry  store,  a  hardware 
store,  a  grocery  store,  and  so  on.  This  was  convenient 
for  the  retail  purchasers  in  just  the  same  way  that  the 
wholesale  establishment  was  convenient  for  the  retail 
dealer.  This  element  of  convenience  brought  large 
numbers  of  persons  to  the  department  stores,  and  each 
of  their  retail  departments  sold  more  goods  than  any 
single  small  retail  store.  The  department  store  dis- 
covered and  made  general  the  use  of  modern  adver- 
tising, which  in  turn  enormously  increased  the  whole 
volume  of  business.  Then  in  turn  the  large  department 
store,  finding  that  it  could  sell  large  quantities  of  goods, 


246        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


wished  to  buy  them  direct  from  the  manufacturer  at  the 
same  price  the  manufacturer  quoted  to  the  jobber.  At 
first  the  manufacturers  protected  the  jobbers,  but  soon 
some  manufacturers  cut  out  the  jobbers  altogether  and 
sold  exclusively  to  the  retail  dealers,  especially  the  large 
department  stores.  Other  manufacturers  still  stick  to 
the  jobbers,  and  refuse  to  do  business  except  through 
the  jobbers. 

Second,  mail-order  businesses  sell  at  retail  direct  to 
consumers,  but  take  and  fill  orders  only  at  a  distance, 
getting  their  orders  through  the  mail  and  making  de- 
livery through  express  or  freight  instead  of  by  special 
retail  delivery  wagons  such  as  the  department  stores  use. 
Institutions  like  Sears,  Eoebuck  &  Co.,  Montgomery, 
Ward  &  Co.,  the  National  Cloak  and  Suit  Company,  etc., 
are  really  department  stores  making  national  deliveries 
instead  of  local  deliveries. 

Third,  manufacturers  of  articles  which  sell  at  a 
relatively  high  price,  with  a  good  margin  of  profit,  such 
as  typewriters  or  adding-machines,  sell  direct  to  the 
consumers  by  national  advertising  with  deliveries 
through  the  mails  or  locally  from  branch  houses,  either 
with  or  without  agents  or  personal  salesmen.  Such 
businesses  are  called  specialty. 

In  all  these  businesses,  the  cost  to  manufacture  the 
article  must  have  added  to  it  the  cost  of  distribution  in 
any  one  of  the  ways  indicated,  and  likewise  the  cost  of 
selling,  before  it  is  possible  to  figure  the  profit.  An 
article  selling  for  a  dollar  retail  may  cost  20  cents  to 
manufacture,  20  cents  for  distribution,  and  40  cents  to 
sell,  leaving  only  20  cents  profit.  Perhaps  this  20  cents 
is  gross  profit,  not  counting  the  time  of  the  head  man  nor 
interest  on  the  money  he  has  invested  to  find  out  what 
to  sell  and  how  to  sell  it,  so  that  his  7iet  profit  is  but 
5  cents.    Different  kinds  of  goods  have  different  pro- 


MERCHANDISING 


247 


portions  of  expense  in  the  different  divisions.  Textiles 
may  cost  for  materials  and  labor  about  one-third  of  the 
wholesale  selling-price;  one-third  goes  to  the  overhead 
costs,  the  investment  in  the  factory  building,  inevitable 
losses,  etc.;  and  one-third  to  selling  and  profit.  A  net 
profit  of  5  per  cent,  is  often  considered  good,  while  7 
per  cent,  to  10  per  cent,  is  extra  good.  The  cost  of 
paper,  printing,  and  binding  of  books  may  be  about  one- 
fifth,  the  discount  to  the  retail  dealer  about  one-third, 
10  per  cent,  may  go  to  the  author  as  royalty,  and  the 
rest  goes  to  general  expenses  of  various  kinds,  including 
advertising  and  selling  wholesale,  investment  in  plates, 
editorial  services,  etc.,  and  if  the  average  net  profit  is 
10  per  cent,  it  is  considered  very  large,  while  5  per  cent, 
is  accepted  as  good. 

Collections  and  Credits 

First,  a  man  must  get  the  necessary  capital  to  start 
his  business.  Of  course,  if  he  is  a  manufacturer  he 
must  establish  his  factory,  if  he  is  a  wholesaler  or  re- 
tailer he  must  put  in  his  stock  of  goods,  but  in  addition 
to  that  he  must  pay  for  his  office-equipment,  for  clerical 
services  of  various  kinds  during  the  period  he  is  estab- 
lishing his  business  when  he  can  not  hope  to  make  any 
profit,  and  for  losses  on  the  mistakes  he  makes  before 
he  gets  his  method  of  doing  business  just  right.  Begin- 
ners often  fail  to  take  these  things  into  consideration. 
The  expense  of  bookkeeping  and  the  losses  on  collections 
are  among  the  more  important  items  that  must  always 
be  reckoned  on. 

Business  with  retail  dealers  is  largely  done  on  credit. 
The  mercantile  agencies.  Dun's  and  Bradstreet's,  pub- 
lish enormous  books  in  which  dealers  with  an  investment 
of  no  more  than  $500  are  given  a  rating,  both  as  to  the 
amount  of  property  they  have  and  as  to  the  way  in 


248       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


which  they  pay  their  bills.  This  information  is  col- 
lected from  all  over  the  country  by  personal  agents,  and 
the  books  are  corrected  every  three  months.  Still  more 
detailed  records  are  kept  on  file  in  the  offices  of  these 
agencies,  and  for  50  cents  they  will  furnish  their  sub- 
scribers with  a  ''special  report.''  Those  who  do  not  feel 
able  to  subscribe  to  these  large  agency  books  may  con- 
sult them  at  their  banks.  With  these  mercantile  reports 
as  a  starting-point,  the  large  wholesalers  and  manu- 
facturers gather  such  special  information  as  they  are 
able  to  obtain  through  organizations  or  associations  of 
credit-men  who  exchange  information  for  their  common 
benefit.  Credit  is  usually  30  or  60  days,  with  a  small  dis- 
count for  cash  in  ten  days,  say  1  or  2  per  cent.  It  costs 
more  than  2  per  cent,  to  collect  accounts  which  run 
longer  than  that,  as  the  strong  dealers  with  plenty  of 
money  always  take  the  cash  discount.  You  can  see  that  2 
per  cent,  for  30  days  is  24.  per  cent,  for  a  year  for  the  use 
of  money.  Any  business  man  who  can  borrow  money  at 
the  bank  at  6  per  cent,  will  discount  his  bills,  and  if  he 
does  not  discount  his  bills  he  is  either  a  poor  business 
man  or  he  is  very  short  of  money  and  so  for  the  time 
being  willing  to  pay  what  amounts  to  ruinous  interest. 
"When  credit  for  more  than  60  days  is  given  it  is  usually 
by  accepting  promissory  notes  at  90  days  (three  months) 
or  occasionally  four  months.  When  these  notes  are 
given  by  a  dealer  who  has  good  credit,  and  endorsed  by 
a  wholesaler  or  manufacturer  who  has  good  credit,  the 
banks  will  discount  them,  deducting  usually  on  the 
basis  of  1  per  cent,  for  60  days. 

Eetail  dealers  are  divided  into  two  classes,  those  who 
sell  only  for  cash,  and  usually  at  lower  prices,  and  those 
who  carry  charge  accounts  with  customers  who  can  give 
references  that  will  establish  their  credit.  Persons  who 
own  land  in  their  own  right  are  usually  considered  good, 


MERCHANDISING 


249 


and  those  who  have  regular  salaries  or  incomes  are 
favored,  but  character  and  a  reputation  for  paying  bills 
promptly  must  be  considered,  too,  and  is  often  accepted 
as  sufficient  when  there  is  no  property  and  no  assured 
salary.  Small  retail  dealers  in  small  towns  too  often 
give  credit  too  promiscuously,  and  their  losses  are  so 
large  they  have  to  make  their  prices  very  high,  and 
that  in  turn  drives  the  people  who  have  ready  money 
to  the  mail-order  houses  or  city  department  stores. 

There  are  two  classes  of  banks,  savings-banks  and 
commercial  banks,  which  start  with  a  certain  capital  and 
then  invite  the  current  deposit-accounts  of  merchants 
who  must  have  a  certain  amount  of  ready  money  on  hand 
all  the  time.  A  quarter  or  a  fifth  of  these  deposits  the 
banks  must  keep  in  their  vaults  to  pay  checks  which 
come  in.  The  rest  they  can  invest  in  stocks  or  bonds,  or 
lend  out  on  the  notes  of  merchants.  They  seldom  pay 
any  interest,  except  on  time  deposits  and  large  average 
balances,  but  they  charge  usually  6  per  cent.,  and  in  that 
way  they  make  money.  Their  great  danger  is  that  they 
will  make  bad  loans  which  will  not  be  paid,  and  on  which 
they  will  lose  many  times  6  per  cent.  To  very  large 
borrowers  with  good  credit  they  will  loan  money  as  low 
as  4  per  cent.  Often  if  they  make  a  net  profit  over  all 
expenses  of  %  per  cent,  they  are  doing  well.  Savings- 
banks  pay  interest  to  their  depositors,  who  usually  keep 
their  money  in  the  bank  a  long  time,  and  then  they  lend 
it  out  for  more  or  less  permanent  investment.  Com- 
mercial banks  do  not  like  to  lend  money  for  more  than 
90  days,  but  savings-banks  will  lend  money  on  mortgages 
for  building  purposes  for  three  to  five  years.  These 
long-time  loans  are  usually  mortgages  or  bonds  (a  kind 
of  mortgage  that  is  divided  up  into  small  units) . 

Formerly  one  man  went  into  business  alone,  or  he 
took  one  or  two  partners.   More  often  nowadays  a  cor- 


250        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


poration  is  formed  which  does  business  like  an  indi- 
vidual, but  is  owned  by  a  great  number.  Its  certificates 
of  ownership  are  called  stock,  and  it  is  managed  by  a 
board  of  directors  and  its  officers,  usually  a  president, 
secretary,  and  treasurer,  with  one  or  more  vice-presi- 
dents. Sometimes  one  man  owns  practically  all  of  the 
stock,  a  few  shares  being  held  by  his  wife  and  his 
stenographer  so  as  to  comply  with  the  law  requiring  at 
least  three  persons  to  form  a  company.  His  business  is 
then  run  in  the  name  of  the  company,  and  he  person- 
ally is  not  liable  for  any  debts  of  the  company.  He 
can  lose  what  he  has  invested  in  the  company,  but  what 
he  has  invested  outside  of  the  company  he  will  not  lose 
should  the  business  fail.  Those  who  give  credit  to  cor- 
porations must  look  out  for  that,  and  banks  often  re- 
quire such  a  man  to  indorse  the  notes  or  orders  of  his 
company  so  that  he  makes  himself  personally  liable  as 
well  as  liable  through  the  company. 

The  difference  between  stocks  and  bonds  is  the  differ- 
ence between  owning  a  house  and  lot  and  having  a 
mortgage  on  it.  The  ownership  is  good  only  for  the 
value  after  the  mortgage  has  been  paid.  Stocks  repre* 
sent  the  value  of  a  business  after  all  debts,  bonds,  and 
mortgages  have  been  paid. 

Financing  a  Business — Records 

Financing  a  business  not  only  at  the  start  but  all 
the  way  along,  is  a  very  important  matter,  and  requires 
a  high  order  of  business  talent,  very  different  from  the 
talent  for  salesmanship. 

Bookkeeping  is  the  record  of  a  business  on  which 
the  man  who  finances  it  must  depend.  He  should  know 
at  all  times  what  he  owes  and  what  is  due  him ;  but  it 
is  equally  important  to  know  in  detail  just  what  each 
thing  is  costing,  and  just  what  it  is  earning,  so  that  the 


MERCHANDISING 


251 


things  that  do  not  pay  may  be  eliminated.  This  is 
what  is  called  cost-accounting.  It  is  the  very  latest 
development  of  bookkeeping,  for  in  the  past  business 
men  have  looked  chiefly  to  the  trial  balance  at  the  end 
of  the  year  to  see  whether,  on  the  whole,  they  have  made 
or  lost  money,  and  have  not  looked  carefully  into  all  the 
different  departments  or  articles.  They  have  thought 
too  much  of  the  original  manufacturing-cost  and  the 
selling-price,  and  have  merely  guessed  at  all  those  mis- 
cellaneous expenses  such  as  distribution,  credits  and 
losses,  selling  expenses,  etc.,  etc.,  which  often  are  far 
more  important  than  the  original  manufacturing-cost, 
especially  when  the  net  profit  gets  down  to  only  5  or  6 
per  cent.,  as  in  most  modern  businesses.  A  little  leak 
knocks  that  small  profit  in  half,  and  it  is  important  to 
know  just  where  that  leak  is.  "When  a  business  is  small, 
a  shrewd  man  may  be  able  to  guess  pretty  accurately. 
When  the  business  gets  larger  it  becomes  quite  impos- 
sible to  guess  safely,  and  cost-accounting  is  the  only  way 
to  know.  The  use  of  carbon-paper,  printed  forms,  type- 
writers, adding-machines,  cash-registers,  etc.,  has  made 
the  keeping  of  records  much  less  expensive,  so  in  these 
days  the  cost  of  knowing  accurately  is  not  too  great. 

The  General  Selling-Problem 

Advertising  and  salesmanship  are  but  features  of  the 
larger  merchandising  problem  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering, and  the  proper  organization  and  financing  of 
the  business  must  be  settled  before  much  consideration 
can  be  given  to  the  detailed  questions  of  selling. 

But  when  the  general  problem  of  selling  comes  up 
for  consideration  it  is  a  complex  one  made  up  of  differ- 
ent methods  of  appeal  to  human  nature.  In  a  retail 
business  it  is  largely  a  matter  of  retail  clerks  behind 
the  counter,  who  wait  on  customers  and  incidentally  use 


252        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


a  limited  amount  of  psychological  appeal  to  induce  them 
to  buy,  of  attractive  window  and  store  display,  and  of 
newspaper  or  circular  advertising,  which  brings  the 
customers  to  the  store  to  see  the  goods  advertised.  Once 
they  get  to  the  store  they  see  many  other  things  which 
they  may  want.  So  this  is  the  problem  in  simple  form : 
First,  to  get  them  to  come  to  the  store  by  whatever 
devices  may  be  necessary ;  second,  to  interest  them  at  the 
store  in  as  many  different  articles  as  possible  by  good 
window  and  store  displays;  and,  finally,  to  please  them 
by  helping  in  a  personal  way  through  the  sales-people  to 
find  just  what  they  want  and  telling  them  the  truth. 
Eetail  salesmanship  is  largely  a  matter  of  giving  intelli- 
gent and  courteous  information.  The  attention  of  the 
customer  has  already  been  secured.  There  is  very  little 
time  for  argument.  Any  forcing  of  the  sale  is  liable 
to  drive  customers  away  the  next  time.  Profit  lies  in 
getting  customers  to  come  regularly  and  habitually,  and 
that  is  brought  about  chiefly  by  a  friendly  helpfulness 
on  the  part  of  the  sales-people  rather  than  by  any  con- 
centrated psychological  effort. 

"Wholesalers  send  their  traveling  men  to  the  dealers 
they  serve.  In  this  case  the  salesman  must  get  atten- 
tion in  order  to  get  the  business  started.  Advertising  is 
largely  confined  to  trade-papers  and  to  circularizing. 
The  whole  burden  of  selling  is  thrown  on  the  traveling 
men.  They  compete  one  against  another,  and  develop 
a  high  degree  of  skill  in  human  appeal.  As  in  the  case 
of  retail  sales,  holding  the  business  is  the  great  thing, 
and  that  is  largely  a  matter  of  intelligent  and  courteous 
service,  not  only  on  the  part  of  the  salesman,  but  also 
on  the  part  of  the  house  through  its  correspondence. 
The  correspondence  department  is  the  substitute  for  the 
salesman  when  he  is  not  on  hand.  A  letter  may  be 
mailed  at  any  time,  but  a  traveling  man  can  call  only 


MERCHANDISING 


253 


once  a  week,  once  a  month,  or  sometimes  only  twice  a 
year,  or  even  only  once  a  year.  Holding  the  business 
depends  very  largely  on  the  salesmanship  quality  in  the 
office  and  the  detailed  service  given  the  customer  in 
making  prompt  shipments,  correcting  errors,  etc.  Goods 
are  the  first  consideration  with  dealers,  but  service  is  a 
close  second  in  importance,  and  as  between  two  houses 
it  is  very  often  the  thing  that  makes  a  dealer  do  business. 
In  the  past,  the  personal  element  has  not  been  thrown 
into  the  correspondence  as  it  should  be,  but  it  has  been 
left  entirely  to  the  salesmen.  Nowadays,  the  office  backs 
up  the  salesmen  by  keeping  the  dealer  informed  through 
circulars  of  all  new  styles,  good  bargains,  etc.,  and 
letters  which  have  the  real  spirit  of  personal  fellowship 
in  them  so  as  to  make  the  dealer  feel  good  just  as  the 
salesman  makes  him  feel  good.  Letters  become  the  as- 
sistant salesmen,  and  the  newer  system  is  to  let  one 
correspondent  handle  one  particular  district,  so  that  the 
selling  force  brought  to  bear  on  one  dealer  is  the  per- 
sonal salesman  on  the  road  and  the  office  salesman  who 
takes  care  of  the  office  end  with  the  same  personal  atten- 
tion. The  older  system  mixed  all  the  letters  together 
and  handled  them  in  a  mechanical  way,  first  by  one 
correspondent  and  then  by  another,  so  there  could  be 
no  personal  individuality  on  the  office  end. 

Wholesalers  can  do  very  little  general  advertising, 
because  their  work  is  largely  that  of  simple  distribution 
in  a  limited  territory;  they  have  in  Dun's  and  Brad- 
street's  full  lists  of  all  the  persons  and  firms  they  can 
hope  to  do  business  with,  and  it  is  better  to  go  to  them 
direct  by  personal  salesmen  or  by  mail.  Some  whole- 
salers have  no  traveling  men,  but  get  their  orders  en- 
tirely by  mail,  making  prices  appreciably  lower  because 
of  the  saving  of  the  high  cost  of  traveling.  At  the  same 
time  wholesalers  who  depend  chiefly  on  salesmen  are 


254        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


using  letters  more  intelligently  so  as  to  reach  small  towns 
where  the  traveling  men  can  not  afford  to  go,  and  to 
take  care  of  customers  so  that  the  traveling  men  do  not 
need  to  go  so  often. 

Manufacturers  have  a  far  wider  selling-problem. 
They  must  sell  their  goods  to  wholesalers  or  to  retail 
dealers,  and  also  they  must  make  the  consuming  public 
go  to  the  retail  stores  and  buy,  not  anything,  but  their 
particular  goods. 

The  old  method  was  to  make  good  goods,  and  then 
depend  on  the  likelihood  that  the  public  would  want 
these  good  goods,  so  the  retail  dealer  would  get  them 
from  the  wholesaler,  and  the  wholesaler  would  get 
them  from  the  manufacturer.  "Wholesale  salesmen  can 
tell  retail  dealers  that  these  goods  are  high  quality, 
while  those  are  low  in  price,  while  these  others  are 
medium.  Those  were  about  the  only  differences  that 
wholesalers  could  be  depended  on  to  make  clear. 

The  modern  method  is  to  make  distinctive  goods  at  a 
fair  price,  give  them  a  brand  name  registered  as  a 
trade-mark,  and  then  with  the  trade-mark  by  which  to 
identify  them,  advertise  to  the  general  public  to  make 
them  ask  for  those  goods  at  the  retail  stores.  If  the 
goods  were  not  in  the  stores,  the  retailers  were  sup- 
posed, after  they  had  a  number  of  calls,  to  ask  for  them 
of  their  jobber.  If  the  special  jobber  that  retail  dealer 
patronized  did  not  have  them,  it  was  very  inconvenient 
to  go  to  another  jobber  who  did  have  them,  even  if  the 
dealer  knew  to  what  jobber  to  go.  So  it  became  appar- 
ent to  make  general  advertising  pay  it  was  essential  to 
have  the  goods  already  on  sale  in  the  stores.  Where 
there  was  good  distribution  to  start  with,  national  ad- 
vertising was  likely  to  pay.  Where  there  was  poor 
distribution,  it  was  almost  sure  not  to  pay.  The  diffi- 
culty with  it  has  been  that  since  the  sale  of  the  goods  is 


MERCHANDISING 


255 


so  round-about  it  is  difficult  to  know  whether  the  adver- 
tising really  pays  or  not,  or  what  special  advertisements 
pay  and  what  do  not.  Scientific  methods  of  testing  are 
now  being  developed. 

Specialties  sold  direct  from  manufacturers  to  con- 
sumers lend  themselves  to  more  detailed  and  intensive 
developments  of  both  advertising  and  salesmanship.  In 
some  cases  advertising  is  intended  to  sift  out  the  entire 
population  and  bring  in  the  names  of  those  who  might 
be  interested  in  the  specialty,  such  as  a  correspondence 
course,  then  follow-up  letters  and  literature"  might  be 
sent,  and  in  some  cases  personal  salesmen  might  follow 
the  ^  literature. "  In  other  cases  lists  are  compiled  and 
circularized  by  means  of  strong  sales  letters  either  for 
orders  on  approval  or  for  inquiries  that  salesmen  could 
follow  up. 

"Where  the  appeal  is  made  all  over  the  country,  either 
for  consumers  to  go  to  dealers  and  ask  for  branded  goods, 
or  for  mail-order  or  specialty  inquiries,  national  mag- 
azines are  obviously  the  best.  Where  the  distribution 
is  local  in  certain  districts  or  cities,  newspaper  adver- 
tising is  the  thing  to  use,  supplemented  by  bill-boards 
and  street-car  signs.  The  latter  are  available  only  when 
attention  can  be  attracted  by  a  very  few  words  in  large 
type  that  can  be  seen  at  a  distance,  or  by  a  striking  pic- 
ture that  can  be  seen  at  a  distance.  Argument  is  hardly 
possible  on  street-car  cards  or  bill-boards;  it  is  only 
partially  possible  in  general  magazine  advertising,  de- 
pending on  the  space  used,  but  reaches  its  highest 
development  in  letters  and  circulars,  or  in  the  corre- 
sponding talks  of  personal  salesmen. 

In  general,  advertising  is  the  means  of  getting  the 
favorable  attention  of  the  customer,  and  salesmanship 
produces  conviction  and  closes  the  sale.  But  we  have 
seen  that  these  are  overlapping  more  and  more,  and 


256       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


that  it  is  foolish  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  adver- 
tising manager  and  the  sales-manager,  for  they  should 
either  be  one  and  the  same  person  (and  will  be  when 
there  are  men  trained  both  in  personal  selling  and  in 
written  salesmanship),  or  they  should  be  held  in  close 
cooperation  by  the  general  manager  of  the  business. 
The  new  arts  of  advertising  and  sales  appeal  have  de- 
veloped so  rapidly  that  many  business  men  even  of  the 
highest  caliber  have  not  been  able  to  keep  pace  with 
them. 

Trusting  the  Public — Approval 

Marshall  Field  &  Co.  started  the  practise  of  allowing 
customers  to  return  goods  they  did  not  want.  It  was 
soon  found  that  this  made  buyers  decide  more  quickly, 
because  they  felt  they  could  always  save  themselves  by 
bringing  back  the  goods,  and  it  removed  the  dissatis- 
faction that  must  always  remain  in  a  buyer's  mind  when 
he  has  made  a  mistake,  either  through  his  own  fault  or 
the  fault  of  another. 

Mail-order  houses  soon  found  that  people  would  not 
buy  what  they  did  not  see  unless  they  could  return  it, 
since  a  picture  and  a  verbal  description  are  so  often 
deceptive.  So  the  approval  privilege  became  almost 
universal  in  the  mail-order  business. 

This  made  people  awake  to  the  fact  that  the  old  fear 
that  everybody  was  lying  awake  nights  to  **do  you"  was 
not  well  founded,  that  people  were  not  so  dishonest  as 
they  had  been  believed  to  be,  indeed,  that  it  is  so  much 
more  trouble  to  be  dishonest  than  to  be  honest  that  in 
the  majority  of  cases  it  is  not  attractive  to  people  to  be 
anything  but  square.  Immediately  there  was  a  great 
extension  of  credit  and  all  kinds  of  goods  were  sold  to 
all  kinds  of  people  on  credit,  tho  a  percentage  was  added 
to  the  price  to  pay  for  the  work  of  collection,  for  while 


MERCHANDISING 


257 


most  people  will  pay  in  the  end,  it  often  takes  consider- 
able skilful  work  to  get  the  money  out  of  them.  To-day 
the  average  man  can  usually  get  a  great  deal  more 
credit  than  it  is  good  for  him  to  have. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  husbands  are  legally  bound 
to  pay  the  debts  of  their  wives,  and  fathers  the  debts  of 
their  children,  except  when  they  run  into  gross  extrava- 
gance. Children  under  age  can  not  make  legal  con- 
tracts or  be  forced  to  pay,  so  dealers  are  very  careful 
about  giving  credit  to  children,  for  while  husbands  will 
nearly  always  pay  the  debts  of  their  wives,  fathers  will 
not  always  pay  the  debts  of  their  children.  Children 
or  young  people  who  establish  a  character  for  honesty 
and  promptness  in  paying  small  obligations,  pretty  easily 
get  larger  credit  even  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  are 
not  legally  liable.  At  seventeen  the  writer,  with  another 
young  man  of  similar  age,  ran  a  boarding-house  in  col- 
lege with  a  business  of  several  thousand  dollars  a  year 
and  had  no  trouble  in  getting  rather  extended  credit. 

Questions  on  Merchandising 

1.  What  is  the  meaning  of  merchandising,  and  what 
is  its  relation  to  advertising  and  salesmanship  ? 

2.  What  is  the  first  condition  of  business^  success  ? 
Illustrate  the  value  of  a  good  location. 

3.  How  can  you  find  out  what  people  really  need? 
To  what  extent  can  a  want  be  built  up  ? 

4.  What  are  the  three  chief  classes  of  mercantile 
businesses?  What  other  kinds  of  businesses  are  there 
besides  mercantile?  What  is  a  line  of  goods?  What 
importance  has  distribution  to  the  business  man  ?  Who 
are  the  consumers?  Who  are  the  distributers?  How 
does  the  jobber  protect  the  dealer?  Trace  the  chain  of 
business  by  which  goods  pass  through  manufacturer, 
jobber,  and  retailer. 


258        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


5.  What  changes  in  doing  business  did  the  depart- 
ment stores  bring  about  in  cities? 

6.  What  part  in  business  organization  have  the  mail- 
order houses  taken? 

7.  On  what  kinds  of  goods  have  the  manufacturers 
been  able  to  go  straight  to  the  consumers?  What  are 
such  goods  called? 

8.  Analyze  the  cost  of  producing  goods  and  distribut- 
ing them,  and  illustrate  the  margins  on  which  the 
different  kinds  of  business  men  must  operate. 

9.  How  is  the  financial  side  of  a  business  organized? 
What  is  needed  in  starting  a  business,  and  what  are 
the  fixt  expenses? 

10.  On  what  credit  terms  is  business  usually  done 
with  dealers,  and  how  is  the  credit  system  of  the  country 
operated?  How  do  manufacturers  get  the  money  to 
give  so  much  credit? 

11.  On  what  credit  terms  is  retail  business  carried  on 
and  how  is  it  financed?  How  does  credit  affect  retail 
prices  ? 

12.  What  two  kinds  of  banks  are  there,  and  how  do 
they  do  business? 

13.  Describe  the  organization  of  corporations  and 
their  liability.  What  is  the  difference  between  stocks 
and  bonds? 

14.  What  is  essential  to  financing  a  business  as  it 
goes  along  after  it  has  once  been  started?  Describe 
modern  bookkeeping  systems  and  their  uses. 

15.  Describe  the  general  selling-problem  in  a  retail 
store. 

16.  Describe  the  general  selling-problem  of  a  jobber. 
How  can  wholesalers  advertise  to  best  advantage  ? 

17.  How  does  the  selling-problem  of  the  manufacturer 
compare  with  that  of  the  jobber  and  retailer?  What 
was  the  old  method  of  selling  goods?    What  is  the 


MERCHANDISING 


259 


modern  method?  "Why  is  distribution  essential  to  suc- 
cessful advertising?  Can  distribution  be  created  by 
advertising  ? 

18.  What  classes  of  goods  lend  themselves  to  the 
more  intensive  forms  of  salesmanship?  In  what  differ- 
ent ways  must  salesmanship  and  advertising  be  combined 
and  carried  on  to  meet  different  cases?  In  what  cases 
is  general  magazine  advertising  practicable?  In  what 
cases  is  newspaper  advertising  indicated?  In  what 
cases  should  advertising  alone  be  depended  on  ?  In  what 
cases  should  personal  salesmanship  alone  be  depended 
on?  In  what  cases  should  the  two  be  combined,  and 
how? 

19.  In  general,  what  is  the  office  of  advertising? 
What  is  the  office  of  salesmanship  of  a  personal  char- 
acter ? 

20.  To  what  extent  has  the  approval  privilege  been 
adopted,  and  why?  What  is  the  attitude  to-day  of  the 
business  man  toward  the  public,  and  how  has  it  changed  ? 

21.  What  liability  has  a  head  of  a  family  for  different 
members  ? 


PAET  IV 
ADVERTISING 


I 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

It  is  said  that  between  $600,000,000  and  one  billion 
is  spent  annually  on  advertising  in  the  United  States. 
This  enormous  business  is  divided  up  among  the  fol- 
lowing classifications: 

National  advertising  (magazines  and  general  weeklies) , 
Eetail  advertising  (daily  and  weekly  newspapers), 
Class  periodicals — 
Farm  papers, 
Trade-papers, 
Eeligious  papers, 
Bill-boards — posters  and  painted  signs. 
Street-car  signs. 

Direct-by-mail  advertising  (letters  and  circulars), 
Novelties. 

Each  of  these  is  handled  in  a  distinct  way,  by  a 
distinct  class  of  workers. 

Advertising  as  a  business  is  carried  on  by  three  classes 
of  men : 

Advertising  managers, 

Advertising  agents  and  experts. 

Advertising  solicitors. 

The  advertising  managers  are  employed  by  the  firms 
which  advertise,  analyze  the  particular  business  with 
which  they  are  connected,  and  usually  prepare  the  ad-, 
vertising  matter. 

The  advertising  solicitors  are  employed  by  the  news- 
papers and  magazines  to  fill  their  space.  A  few  of  the 
best  of  them  try  to  help  those  who  run  advertising  with 

263 


264        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


them  to  get  the  largest  possible  returns,  and  they  refuse 
advertising  they  believe  will  fail,  as  the  large  returns 
come  to  those  who  really  succeed  and  continue  month 
after  month.  At  present  a  large  proportion  of  them  are 
mere  solicitors. 

The  advertising  agents  are  independent  clearing- 
I  houses  through  which  the  greater  part  of  the  national 
i  display  advertising  is  distributed,  and  more  and  more 
they  are  coming  to  be  the  advertising  experts  of  the 
country.  They  do  not  handle  the  local  retail  adver- 
;  tising,  which  is  placed  direct.  They  are  paid  largely 
by  a  commission  allowed  them  by  the  newspapers  and 
magazines.  High-grade  periodicals,  like  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post,  allow  10  per  cent,  commission.  Many 
newspapers  allow  20  per  cent.  High-grade  agencies 
usually  take  the  net  cost  of  the  advertising,  whatever  it 
may  be,  and  add  10  or  15  per  cent,  commission.  If  their 
work  is  merely  to  distribute  the  advertising  and  check 
it  up,  the  charge  is  10  per  cent.  If  expert  service  in 
preparing  copy  and  working  out  a  campaign  is  included, 
the  commission  is  15  per  cent.  An  additional  charge  is 
made  for  preparing  cuts,  circular  matter,  and  the  like. 

A  checking  of  the  magazines  a  few  years  ago  showed 
4,000  different  concerns  then  advertising.  McKittrick's 
Directory  of  Advertisers,  which  includes  also  the  large 
retail  advertisers  and  many  who  advertise  only  occasion- 
ally, has  about  20,000  names.  The  large,  steady  adver- 
tisers in  the  magazines  will  number  scarcely  500.  The 
number  of  general  advertisers  does  not  appear  to  be 
increasing.  Recently  the  advertising  in  such  magazines 
as  the  Century^  McClure^s,  etc.,  has  decreased,  while 
there  has  been  a  considerable  increase  in  the  money  paid 
to  periodicals  like  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  and  Col- 
lier^ s  Weekly,  which  run  the  advertising  alongside  of  the 
reading-matter.    The  attention  paid  to  advertising  next 


THE  BUSINESS  OP  ADVERTISING  265 


reading-matter  is  estimated  by  psychology  experts,  after 
systematic  tests,  to  be  five  times  greater  than  advertising 
in  the  solid  middle  of  an  advertising  section  at  the  back 
of  a  magazine.  On  this  account  many  of  the  older  maga- 
zines (McChire's,  for  example)  are  changing  their  form 
to  a  larger  size. 

The  total  number  of  periodicals  published  is  said  to 
be  about  23,000  at  present,  of  which  some  14,000  are 
country  weeklies  with  very  small  local  circulation. 
There  are  perhaps  2,500  daily  newspapers,  and  about  as 
many  magazines,  tho  50  to  100  magazines  and  300  to  500 
newspapers  would  pretty  well  cover  the  country  for  the 
general  advertiser. 

Modern  advertising  began  less  than  seventy-five  years 
ago.  Before  the  Civil  War  the  largest  advertisement 
which  had  appeared  was  for  Fairbanks  Scales,  amount- 
ing to  $3,000  in  the  New  York  Tribune  and  other  news- 
papers. In  1864  Jay  Cooke,  appointed  by  Lincoln  to 
sell  government  bonds,  advertised  in  every  good  paper 
in  the  North  and  sold  $1,240,000,000  worth.  Just  after 
the  war  patent-medicine  advertising  sprang  to  the  front. 
These  medicines  cost  three  to  five  cents  a  bottle,  carton 
included,  and  sell  for  perhaps  a  dollar,  so  there  is  an 
enormous  margin  for  advertising. 

Robert  Bonner,  publisher  of  the  New  York  Ledger, 
is  said  to  have  been  started  in  advertising  in  a  peculiar 
way.  He  sent  over  to  the  New  York  Herald,  with  which 
he  had  been  connected,  a  few  words  marked  ^^one  line." 
In  some  way  this  was  read  one  page,  and  to  his  astonish- 
ment the  next  morning  he  saw  his  advertisement  in  a 
space  that  cost  more  than  all  the  money  he  had  at  com- 
mand. It  was  the  turning-point  in  his  fortunes,  how- 
ever, for  it  started  his  Ledger  off  so  briskly  that  he  be- 
came a  large  and  successful  advertiser,  spending  as 
high  as  $27,000  in  one  week  to  announce  the  fact  that 


266       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Edward  Everett  was  writing  for  his  paper.  Bonner 
used  to  say,  says  the  editor  of  Selling  Forces,  that, 
having  accumulated  all  the  money  he  could  find  and 
thrown  it  into  advertising,  before  he  could  get  back  to 
his  office  it  would  be  there  again — and  a  lot  more  with 
it.  Advertising  was  a  new  thing  then,  and  successes 
came  more  easily  than  they  do  now.  No  modern  adver- 
tiser would  dare  make  such  a  remark  as  that.  Pierre 
Lorillard  built  a  fortune  of  $20,000,000  by  advertising 
tobacco  and  snuff.  The  first  food-advertising  appeared 
in  1870,  but  the  consistent  exploitation  of  breakfast- 
foods  did  not  begin  till  twenty  years  later,  when  Horn- 
by's  Oatmeal,  H-0,  was  put  on  the  market,  followed 
later  by  such  cereals  as  Force  (made  famous  by  Jim 
Dumps  turned  into  Sunny  Jim),  Quaker  Oats,  Grape 
Nuts,  and  Corn  Flakes.  On  all  of  these  millions  were 
spent  in  general  advertising.  Even  larger  advertisers 
have  been  the  soap-manufacturers,  who  have  advertised 
such  soaps  as  Pears,  Ivory,  Sapolio,  etc.,  and  who  are 
said  to  spend  over  a  million  dollars  a  year  each. 

Retail  advertising  on  a  large  scale  started  in  Phila- 
delphia with  the  announcements  or  store  news"  of 
John  Wanamaker.  There  are  about  fifteen  hundred  well- 
developed  department  stores  throughout  the  country, 
and  the  use  of  full  newspaper  pages  is  distinctive  of 
them  all.  Occasionally,  there  are  double-page  spreads, 
and  as  many  as  four  pages  at  a  time  have  been  used; 
but  between  times  many  smaller  advertisements  are 
worked  in.  These  revolve  more  or  less  around  special 
occasions,  the  most  important  being  the  fall  opening, 
next  the  spring  opening  when  the  new  fashions  are 
shown,  holiday  advertising  before  the  holidays,  and 
clearance  sales  after  the  holidays.  The  largest  depart- 
ment stores  spend  upward  of  half  a  million  dollars  a 
year,  while  in  a  city  of  fifteen  thousand,  something  like 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING  267 


seven  or  eight  thousand  dollars  might  be  spent  by  an 
enterprising  small  department  store.  Each  of  the  great 
cities,  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago, 
seems  to  have  a  special  style  of  retail  advertising.  Com- 
pare the  page  advertisement  of  Marshall  Field  &  Co. 
with  that  of  John  "Wanamaker. 

"While  there  are  upward  of  a  hundred  thousand  street- 
cars in  the  United  States,  not  all  are  in  use  all  the  time, 
and  45,000  to  50,000  cards  11  x  21  inches  will  cover  the 
country  thoroughly.  Such  a  concern  as  Enoch  Mor- 
gan's Sons  with  Sapolio  and  the  National  Biscuit  Com- 
pany with  Uneeda  Biscuit  have  been  consistent  street- 
car as  well  as  magazine  and  newspaper  advertisers. 

Bill-posting  originated  with  the  theatrical  advertisers, 
who  use  that  more  than  any  other  form.  This  is  divided 
into  painted  signs,  which  are  put  up  for  a  year,  and 
paper  posters  counted  as  so  many  sheets''  (28  x  42 
inches).  A  twelve-sheet  poster  would  be  9^4  ft.  high 
and  101^  ft.  wide.  Each  complete  poster  is  called  a 
''stand."  The  Force  Food  Company  is  said  to  have  had 
at  one  time  20,000  twenty-four  sheet  stands,  costing 
about  $25,000  a  month.  Painted  signs  form  a  separate 
business. 

The  most  recent  development  of  poster  advertising  is 
the  illuminated  sign,  often  with  the  effects  of  motion  due 
to  the  turning  on  and  off  of  the  electric  lights  by  a 
clockwork  device. 

Poster  and  street-car  advertising  is  chiefly  valuable 
for  such  things  as  can  be  pictured  or  described  in  a 
word  or  two,  and  which  appeal  to  persons  who  do  not 
read  much.  Bull  Durham  Tobacco  (a  cheap  smoking- 
tobacco)  and  various  beers  have  been  widely  and  suc- 
cessfully advertised  by  painted  signs  and  posters.  A 
circus  could  probably  be  advertised  successfully  only  by 
posters. 


268        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Novelty-advertising,  which  has  grown  to  large  pro- 
portions within  a  few  years,  depends  for  its  effect  on  the 
favorable  attitude  of  mind  which  a  useful  gift  produces. 
At  first  advertisers  printed  or  stamped  their  announce- 
ment and  name  boldly  on  the  article,  as  a  pencil,  a 
paper-weight,  a  pocket-knife  or  special  pocket-tool  ca- 
pable of  performing  several  different  operations,  etc. 
Later,  it  was  found  that  patrons  valued  the  gift  more 
highly  if  it  was  not  too  much  disfigured  by  advertising. 
At  the  same  time  it  was  important  to  have  the  name 
of  the  giver  clearly  indicated,  else  people  soon  forgot 
where  the  gift  came  from,  or  it  fell  into  the  hands  of 
others  who  never  knew,  and  so  the  chain  of  association 
was  lost.  Now  a  plain  inscription  in  small,  neat  style, 
of  the  name  and  business  of  the  advertising  giver  is 
preferred,  and  disfiguring  advertisements  on  calendars 
and  other  gifts  are  avoided. 

Novelties  are  used  systematically  to  attract  inquiries 
from  advertisements  or  circular  letters,  or  they  are 
given  as  free  tokens  of  appreciation  to  old  customers 
whose  business  is  valued,  or  to  prospects  whose  good-will 
is  desired.  It  is  important  that  they  be  used  on  a 
systematic  plan  that  assures  a  proper  appreciation  on 
the  part  of  the  person  who  receives  them.  Carelessness 
in  seeing  that  they  understand  the  reason  for  the  gift 
and  appreciate  it  causes  vast  loss. 

Novelties  are  usually  special  articles  that  can  not  be 
obtained  in  stores,  or  articles  which  are  commonly  sold 
retail  at  a  high  price  yet  can  be  bought  for  one  to  five 
cents,  tho  in  some  lines  of  business  more  expensive  gift- 
giving  is  indulged  in.  The  important  thing  is  that  the 
novelty  be  useful,  yet  hard  to  obtain,  or  ordinarily 
rather  expensive.  Then  it  will  be  valued.  Common, 
cheap  articles  are  worth  little. 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING  269 


Questions  on  the  Business  of  Advertising 

1.  What  is  estimated  to  be  the  annual  expenditure 
for  advertising?  Into  what  different  classes  is  it 
divided  ? 

2.  What  three  different  classes  of  persons  are  engaged 
in  carrying  on  this  business?  Describe  the  duties  of 
each. 

3.  How  many  business  concerns  are  engaged  in  ad- 
vertising? How  many  periodicals  solicit  advertising, 
and  how  are  they  divided  ?  What  number  of  periodicals 
would  be  used  in  a  good  national  advertising  campaign  ? 
How  are  the  columns  of  other  periodicals  filled  with 
advertising  ? 

4.  Describe  the  beginning  of  modern  advertising  in 
the  United  States. 

5.  What  was  the  history  of  some  of  the  first  great 
advertisers,  and  how  did  they  make  their  success? 

6.  Who  started  retail  advertising  on  a  large  scale, 
and  how  did  he  carry  it  on?  What  are  ^^double-page 
spreads  ? ' ' 

7.  How  is  street-car  advertising  handled,  and  for 
what  purposes  is  it  useful? 

8.  How  did  bill-board  and  painted  sign  advertising 
originate,  and  for  what  purposes  is  it  chiefly  useful  ? 

9.  What  is  the  basis  of  novelty-advertising  and  how 
is  it  carried  on  ?  What  kinds  of  articles  are  best 
adapted  for  use  as  novelties  ? 


II 


PLANNING  AN  ADVERTISING  CAMPAIGN 

An  advertising  campaign  may  be  of  three  different 
kinds,  national  and  general  when  there  is  a  national 
distribution  of  the  goods,  local  when  a  certain  city  or 
state  is  covered,  and  mail-order  when  orders  are  expected 
by  mail  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  the  selling 
will  be  done  by  letter  or  catalog. 

In  the  first  two  cases,  no  direct  or  immediately  ob- 
servable return  is  expected,  and  so  an  advertising  appro- 
priation must  be  made.  This  is  a  sum  that  will  be 
spent  on  advertising  regardless  of  getting  it  back  at 
once,  with  the  hope  ultimately  of  increasing  the  total 
volume  of  business.  In  the  case  of  mail-order  adver- 
tising campaigns,  there  is  a  first  appropriation  of  so 
much  money  to  be  spent  in  testing  the  advertising  in  as 
small  a  way  as  will  be  representative,  and  not  until  the 
inquiries  or  orders  that  come  from  the  tests  show  a 
return  that  will  prove  profitable  is  any  very  large  cam- 
paign launched.  Mail-order  advertisers  seldom  use 
large  space  and  are  never  reckless.  Most  of  the  small 
advertisements  with  distinctive  little  pictures  or  head- 
lines which  appear  month  after  month  are  of  the  mail- 
order variety. 

In  a  general  advertising  campaign  which  is  either 
national  or  more  or  less  local  or  special,  there  must  first 
be  an  advertising  manager  employed  by  the  house,  or 
some  member  of  the  firm  must  act  as  advertising  man- 
ager. Only  a  person  who  really  knows  the  business  and 
is  in  close  touch  with  its  policy  and  organization  is  in 
position  to  direct  the  campaign  all  along  the  line. 

270 


PLANNING  AN  ADVERTISING  CAMPAIGN  271 


The  first  thing  is  to  determine  how  much  money  will 
be  spent  during  the  season.  This  is  the  advertising  ap- 
propriation. 

"With  this  amount  in  mind,  the  advertising  manager 
goes  to  the  agency  that  will  be  chosen  to  place''  the 
advertising,  and  is  turned  over  to  a  solicitor  or  salesman 
who  is  or  should  be  always  something  of  an  expert.  At 
any  rate,  he  is  in  intimate  relation  with  the  various  kinds 
of  experts  who  go  to  make  up  a  good  agency.  The 
agency  has  the  rate-cards  of  all  periodicals  on  file  (or  all 
the  important  ones),  and  can  estimate  closely  the  precise 
cost  of  all  outside  or  additional  helps  such  as  booklets, 
mailing-cards,  cuts,  etc.  Above  all,  the  agent  is  familiar 
with  the  advertising  power  and  value  of  the  different 
mediums.  Is  this  magazine  a  good  medium  for  this 
special  kind  of  advertising?  Is  it  known  to  be  a  good 
puller?  Is  its  rate  low  for  the  circulation  which  it  is 
known  to  have  ?  What  size  of  space  will  be  sufficient  to 
get  results  in  it?  (This  will  depend  somewhat  on  the 
kind  of  copy  that  will  be  used.)  What  sort  of  copy  is 
advisable  ?  The  agent  will  send  out  the  advertising,  get 
copies  of  the  magazines  and  newspapers  where  it  ap- 
pears and  check  them,  and  perform  clerical  work  which 
would  give  the  individual  advertiser  a  world  of  trouble 
at  a  large  cost,  while  the  agent  takes  his  pay  from  the 
commissions  allowed  by  the  periodicals.  Above  all,  the 
advertising  agent  should  be  valuable  because  of  his  ex- 
perience with  so  many  different  kinds  of  business,  his 
familiarity  with  what  other  advertisers  are  doing,  and 
his  intensive  expert  knowledge  of  the  subject.  The  time 
has  come  when  no  general  advertising  campaign  would 
be  undertaken  by  any  wise  advertiser,  however  large, 
without  placing  the  business  through  an  agency. 

When  the  agency  has  offered  a  list  of  periodicals  in 
which  advertising  might  be  placed,  indicated  the  desir- 


272        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


able  sizes,  and  outlined  the  booklets,  follow-up  letters, 
cuts,  etc.,  that  will  be  required,  the  advertising  man- 
ager goes  back  to  write  the  copy,  or  get  some  one  else 
to  write  it,  lay  out  the  advertising,  and  plan  the  co- 
operation with  the  sales  department. 

The  cooperation  with  the  sales  department  is  very 
important.  If  salesmen  are  employed,  they  should  be 
furnished  in  advance  with  the  proofs  of  the  advertise- 
ments and  a  list  of  the  periodicals  in  which  they  will 
appear.  These  they  show  to  the  dealers  and  use  as  a 
leverage  to  get  orders.  A  book  is  often  made  up  of  the 
advertisements  that  are  to  appear,  and  sent  with  a  special 
letter  announcing  the  advertising  campaign  to  all  the 
dealers  on  the  list  of  old  customers  or  the  list  of  pros- 
pects which  traveling  men  are  directed  to  call  on  and 
try  to  interest.  The  greatest  direct  good  that  a  general 
advertising  campaign  has  at  first  is  to  interest  dealers  to 
place  more  and  larger  orders. 

Every  advertisement  should  have  a  ''hook,''  which  will 
cause  those  who  read  to  answer  and  perhaps  send  the 
name  of  their  local  dealer.  This  ''hook"  is  usually  the 
offer  of  a  free  booklet,  catalog,  calendar,  or  advertising 
novelty.  These  names  are  immediately  sent  to  the 
various  dealers  and  are  used  as  another  lever  to  help 
salesmen  or  correspondents  start  new  accounts  or  in- 
crease the  size  of  old  ones.  The  direct  sales  from  these 
inquiries  are  seldom  or  never  sufficient  to  pay,  but  they 
are  very  useful  as  a  leverage  by  which  salesmen  may 
influence  dealers. 

Illustrated  mailing-cards  and  form-letters  are  planned 
for  the  list  of  those  who  inquire,  and  also  for  the  dealers 
who  ought  to  become  new  customers,  or  old  dealers  who 
ought  to  give  larger  orders. 

In  addition,  certain  advertisements  directed  to  the 
dealers  may  be  run  in  the  various  trade-papers.  These 


PLANNING  AN  ADVERTISING  CAMPAIGN  273 


help  to  find  the  new  dealers  and  individual  men  in 
stores  who  do  not  receive  or  give  attention  to  the  mail- 
ing-cards and  form-letters.  Of  course,  these  are  entirely 
different  from  the  general  advertisements,  since  they  are 
addrest  to  the  dealers  on  the  line  of  what  profit  or 
attractiveness  there  is  for  them  in  promoting  business. 
The  merits  of  the  goods  are  often  a  secondary  matter 
with  dealers,  as  they  will  buy  only  what  they  can  sell 
to  advantage. 

When  these  items  have  been  fully  discust  inside  the 
house  by  the  person  acting  as  advertising  manager,  they 
are  all  laid  before  the  agent  again  for  his  criticism  and 
suggestion.  He  may  rewrite  the  copy,  plan  new  pic- 
tures, and  indicate  various  other  things  that  ought  to 
be  carried  out  on  a  larger  or  smaller  scale.  The  agent 
more  and  more  is  becoming  the  consulting  expert.  At 
one  time  it  was  thought  he  was  too  much  under  the 
infiuence  of  periodicals  that  gave  large  commissions,  and 
cared  nothing  for  the  collateral  matters  such  as  the 
follow-up  out  of  which  he  got  no  commission.  Now, 
however,  the  best  agents  realize  that  to  make  a  satisfied 
and  continuous  advertiser,  the  only  kind  whose  business 
is  worth  having,  these  collateral  matters  must  be  right. 
The  best  periodicals  also  realize  that  and  try  to  advise 
impartially,  regardless  of  commissions,  fixing  their  eyes 
on  the  real  success  of  the  advertiser,  knowing  that  his 
success  means  their  ultimate  profit.  The  custom  of 
charging  a  fixt  commission  above  the  net  cost  to  the 
agent  has  done  away  with  certain  abuses  of  favoritism 
growing  out  of  special  commissions.  The  direct  or  in- 
direct bribing  of  a  reputable  advertising  agent  is  no 
longer  possible. 

Only  a  few  of  the  larger  general  advertising  agents 
provide  for  posters  and  street-car  cards,  which  are 
handled  separately. 


274        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Questions  on  Planning  an  Advertising  Campaign 

1.  What  three  different  kinds  of  advertising  cam- 
paigns may  be  planned?    How  is  each  handled? 

2.  What  is  the  first  requisite  to  carrying  on  any  ad- 
vertising campaign.    What  must  first  be  determined? 

3.  What  duties  does  the  agency  perform? 

4.  Who  writes  the  copy?  What  relation  must  the 
advertising  have  to  the  sales  department  ? 

5.  In  what  ways  does  the  sales  department  use  the 
advertising?    What  is  the  hook? 

6.  What  supplementary  forms  of  advertising  should 
go  with  national  magazine  or  newspaper  advertising  ? 

7.  Where  does  trade-paper  advertising  come  in? 
How  is  it  used  to  best  advantage  ?  What  kind  of  appeal 
must  be  made  to  dealers  ? 

8.  Who  is  the  final  critic  of  the  advertising  plans, 
and  why  should  the  agent  give  unbiased  and  honest 
advice  ? 

9.  Does  the  advertising  agent  handle  all  parts  of  the 
advertising  as  far  as  distribution  is  concerned?  Just 
how  does  he  place  the  advertising? 


Ill 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  AND  ART  OF 
ADVERTISING  DISPLAY 

The  success  of  a  display  advertisement,  which  may  be 
repeated  in  many  magazines  and  cost  a  great  deal  of 
money  to  print,  is  a  complicated  matter.  Not  only  does 
it  require  a  great  deal  of  attention,  but  its  effectiveness 
should  be  tested  systematically  before  much  money  is 
spent  on  it.    Consider  the  following*: 

Does  it  secure  attention?  This  is  a  matter  of  size, 
position  in  the  publication,  and  above  all  its  design. 

Is  the  attention  secured  favorable — such  as  naturally 
to  cause  like  rather  than  dislike  ? 

Is  the  favorable  attention  such  as  will  lead  to  buying  ? 
There  are  different  degrees  of  this:  1.  Tendency  to 
remember  the  advertised  goods  when  one  goes  into  a 
store  to  buy  something  of  that  sort.  2.  Tendency  to 
investigate,  usually  by  writing  for  a  catalog  or  booklet. 
3.  Tendency  to  send  an  immediate  order.  Each  has 
its  own  technique. 

Is  action  made  easy  by  clear  statement  of  just  what 
to  do,  where  to  go,  who  the  advertiser  is?  Advertising 
produces  very  feeble  and  slight  mind-currents  tending 
to  action,  and  unless  something  very  simple,  easy,  and 
direct  is  made  perfectly  clear,  the  effect  may  be  lost. 

Attention  Values 

The  matter  of  first  great  importance  is  that  an  adver- 
tisement should  not  only  be  seen,  but  noticed.  With 


♦See  "Principles  of  Advertising  Arrangement,"  by  Frank  Alvah 
Parsons, 

275 


276        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


hundreds  of  others  all  around  it  crying  for  attention, 
getting  intelligent  notice  is  a  difficult  matter. 

The  ordinary  mind  can  see  but  one  thing  at  a  time, 
and  when  several  things  are  observed  one  after  the 
other,  the  average  mind  tires  so  quickly  that  it  seems 
to  have  an  observation  limit  of  three  or  four  things. 
Only  the  most  highly  trained  minds  can  give  attention 
to  ten  or  a  dozen  things  one  after  the  other,  and  in  any 
case  as  the  number  increases  the  intensity  of  attention 
to  each  one  diminishes. 

It  has  been  proved  beyond  a  question  that  a  full-page 
advertisement  gets  more  than  double  the  attention  given 
a  half-page  and  much  more  than  four  times  the  atten- 
tion given  to  a  quarter-page.  It  is  easy  for  the  human 
mind  to  see  one  thing  on  a  page,  but  comparatively  very 
hard  to  see  four  things.  It  gets  confused  looking  first 
at  one  thing  and  then  at  another. 

The  old  magazines  bunched  all  the  advertising  at  the 
back  or  in  the  front.  The  back  cover-pages  and  two  or 
three  pages  in  the  body,  the  page  following  the  read- 
ing-matter and  that  facing  the  reading-matter  in  front, 
and  the  pages  near  the  front  cover  were  found  to  receive 
as  much  as  five  times  the  attention  given  to  pages  in  the 
middle  of  the  advertising  section.  So  the  modern  ten- 
dency is  to  have  a  larger  page  and  place  the  advertising 
matter  alongside  the  reading-matter  all  the  way  through. 
This  spreads  the  attention  to  advertising  more  equally 
through  the  whole  magazine,  and  makes  small  advertise- 
ments grouped  together  with  some  skill  more  result- 
producing. 

Then  in  the  arrangement  of  the  advertisement  itself, 
attention  depends  first  on  its  simplicity  and  unity.  In 
the  advertisement  itself,  one  object  or  one  word  would 
make  an  instant  impression,  two  or  three  would  make  a 
less  impression,  and  fifteen  or  twenty,  all  of  the  same 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  277 


size,  or  several  different  pictures,  would  be  fatal  to 
attention. 

As  an  advertisement  to  be  effective  in  producing  busi- 
ness must  give  attention  to  several  different  things,  we 
maintain  our  unity  by  getting  attention  first  to  one  thing 
by  making  it  the  most  prominent,  then  to  the  next  thing 
in  logical  order  by  making  that  the  next  most  prominent, 
and  taking  care  that  each  thing  shall  have  in  it  some- 
thing that  will  interest  sufficiently  to  suggest  going  on 
till  at  last  the  full  statement  is  made  in  plain  small  type 
which  will  be  read  only  by  those  who  have  been  led  to 
read  by  what  is  called  the  display. 

In  advertising  parlance,  this  means  that  every  adver- 
tisement should  have  an  ^^eye-catcher,"  which  may  be  a 
picture  or  spot  of  black  color  of  some  sort,  a  ^^catch- 
line,"  or  phrase  short  enough  to  be  read  at  a  glance  and 
likely  to  hold  the  interest,  and  the  ^^body,"  or  small 
type  explanation  and  argument,  leading  to  the  name  and 
address,  which  are  given  a  subordinate  display  so  as  to 
fix  them  in  the  memory. 

The  best  eye-catcher  is  something  that  is  distinctly 
different  from  anything  around.  Its  choice  depends  on 
what  other  advertisers  are  using.  "Without  a  study  of 
the  surroundings  of  an  advertisement  on  the  page  of  the 
magazine,  it  would  be  impossible  to  make  the  best  choice 
of  a  good  eye-catcher.  Usually  it  is  excess  of  some  one 
thing — ^more  than  usual  white  space,  a  border  that  is 
individual  and  peculiar,  an  arrangement  in  two  or  three 
columns  where  other  advertisements  are  arranged  in  one 
column,  or  a  simple  and  striking  picture.  "Where  others 
are  using  pictures  and  small  type,  perfectly  plain  type 
in  large  size  may  attract  attention.  The  best  thing  to 
catch  attention  is  a  genuine  individuality  in  the  entire 
layout  and  development  of  the  advertisement,  just  as 
the  man  or  woman  with  a  distinguished  bearing  or  an 


278        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


individual  personality  is  at  once  separated  from  the 
crowd  as  you  glance  over  it.  To  give  an  advertisement 
this  distinguished  individuality  is  the  height  of  adver- 
tising art. 

Pleasing  Shapes  and  Masses 

The  principles  of  art  teach  us  what  shapes,  masses, 
and  colors  are  most  pleasing  to  the  human  instinct.  We 
must  understand  them  in  an  elementary  way  if  we  would 
arrange  a  display  advertisement  so  that  the  attention 
which  it  produces  will  be  favorable.  Even  color  is  an 
element  in  nearly  all  modern  advertising,  because  even 
when  the  ink  is  only  black,  the  halftone  gives  us  several 
shades,  and  the  relative  blackness  of  pictures  and  masses 
of  type  or  borders  is  a  vital  element. 

First,  take  a  vertical  line,  turn  it  so  it  will  be  hori- 
zontal, and  divide  it  exactly  in  the  middle.  Then  turn 
it  again  to  its  vertical  position,  and  you  will  be  surprized 
to  see  that  the  mark  in  the  middle  appears  to  be  below 
the  middle.  You  divide  the  line  slightly  above  the 
middle,  and  at  once  you  see  that  you  have  a  distinctly 
more  pleasing  proportion. 

A  well-proportioned  book  page  is  about  5  by  7^ 
inches,  and  a  sheet  of  letter-paper  is  8^/^  by  11  inches. 
On  either  of  these  pages  let  us  draw  a  small  rectangle 
of  about  the  same  proportions,  higher  than  it  is  wide,  a 
square,  and  a  similar  rectangle  lying  on  its  side  so  that 
it  is  wider  than  it  is  high.  The  square  looks  common- 
place. A  circle,  likewise,  when  unsupported  is  common- 
place to  our  eyes.  The  rectangle  which  is  higher  than 
it  is  wide  is  related  harmoniously  to  the  shape  of  the 
paper,  and  that  we  find  most  pleasing.  The  rectangle 
which  is  wider  than  it  is  high  looks  squat  on  a  page  of 
paper  such  as  we  have  before  us ;  but  let  the  wide,  low 
rectangle  represent  the  shape  of  a  house  placed  on  a 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  279 


prairie,  and  we  have  Frank  Lloyd  Wright's  much  ad- 
mired bungalows  with  broad,  low  lines.  It  gives  us 
pleasure  to  see  a  certain  line  or  form  repeated,  but 
with  variations  to  relieve  monotony.  An  advertisement 
should  be  closely  related  to  the  shape  of  the  paper  on 
which  it  is  printed,  and  the  other  forms  with  which  it 
is  associated. 

The  ^'golden  section"  of  the  Greeks,  seen  in  so  many 
of  their  buildings,  is  1  to  1.618  or  nearly  3  to  5.  That 
is  about  the  proportion  of  a  magazine  page.  A  still  more 
refined  proportion  for  advertising  work  is  that  of  5,  7, 
and  11.  Halves,  thirds,  and  quarters  are  inartistic  pro- 
portions. The  type  page  of  a  well-printed  book  has 
its  narrowest  margin  at  the  back,  the  next  widest  at 
the  outer  edge,  and  the  widest  at  the  bottom.  When 
these  varying  margins  are  in  the  proportion  of  5,  7, 
and  11  we  find  them  far  more  pleasing  than  when 
the  type  page  is  directly  in  the  center  of  the  paper, 
as  an  inartistic  printer  would  place  it.  If  we  divide 
a  rectangle  like  a  page  of  advertising  in  a  magazine 
so  that  the  area  of  the  lower  portion  is  7  square 
inches  and  the  upper  portion  5  square  inches,  we 
have  a  pleasing  proportion.  If  the  cover  of  a  booklet 
has  a  border  around  the  paper  page  and  we  place  the 
main  title  about  in  the  center  of  a  space  that  would 
correspond  to  the  upper  area  of  5  square  inches,  and 
another  line  of  type  near  the  bottom  as  a  base,  we  have 
an  artistic  appearance. 

Our  instinct  for  the  law  of  gravitation  makes  us  un- 
easy when  we  see  heavy  masses  unsupported  by  what 
appears  to  be  a  proper  base.  Circles  and  curves  are 
more  beautiful  when  supported  by  what  appear  to  be 
flat  base  pieces. 

While  our  instinct  prefers  to  divide  a  vertical  line 
above  the  middle,  a  horizontal  line  we  wish  to  divide 


280        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


exactly  in  the  middle,  and  throughout  we  like  an  even 
balance  from  side  to  side.  The  Japanese,  on  the  con- 
trary, seriously  object  to  our  system  of  bilateral  bal- 
ancing, but  they  have  a  subtler  balance  of  their  own 
on  horizontal  planes. 

Our  artistic  instinct  takes  far  greater  pleasure  in  a 
few  related  shapes  than  in  many  unrelated  forms.  As  a 
certain  theme  in  music  appears  again  and  again,  so  a 
certain  beautiful  line  will  appear  in  a  work  of  art  in 
many  varying  forms  and  sizes.  An  advertisement 
should  have  only  one  shape  of  type-face,  which  may  be 
made  heavier  and  thicker  to  give  the  display  lines,  and 
may  be  used  in  varying  sizes  to  avoid  monotony.  If 
some  other  face  is  used,  the  curves  of  the  letters  should 
at  least  be  on  the  same  order.  A  square  gothic  face 
mingled  with  a  delicate  old-style  face  makes  usually  a 
hideous  jumble,  tho  sometimes  a  carefully  developed  con- 
trast is  pleasing.  When  a  third  face  is  added  to  two 
contrasting  faces,  however,  the  effect  is  seldom  pleasing. 
One  body-face  and  one  display-face  in  varying  sizes 
should  be  the  almost  invariable  rule  for  advertising 
typography. 

Another  important  principle  in  advertising  arrange-- 
ment  is  movement.  If  there  is  a  figure  and  the  face  is 
turned  away  from  the  body  of  the  advertisement,  the 
eye  follows  it  and  attention  is  inevitably  distracted.  If 
in  an  advertisement  lines  run  in  many  directions,  a 
sense  of  confusion  results  as  the  eye  tries  to  follow  them 
all  at  the  same  time.  On  the  contrary,  when  lines  lead 
the  eye  directly  to  the  most  important  object  or  line  of 
type,  the  advertisement  appears  distinctly  stronger. 

Masses  of  color  in  an  advertisement  also  are  impor- 
tant. If  there  is  a  border  it  should  be  of  about  the  same 
darkness  or  lightness  as  the  display-type.  A  picture 
may  be  thrown  into  sharp  relief  by  the  contrast  of  a 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  281 


dark  background,  but  the  light  type  of  the  advertise- 
ment should  then  harmonize  in  color  with  the  picture. 
Connecting  tones  or  shades  help  to  soften  violent  con- 
trasts, but  they  must  be  related  to  one  or  the  other  of 
the  contrasting  color-notes.  The  selection  of  a  type 
which  is  neither  too  dark  nor  too  light  to  harmonize  with 
a  picture  or  design  of  some  sort  about  which  an  adver- 
tisement is  built  up,  is  often  a  matter  of  the  greatest 
importance. 

In  designing  an  advertisement  let  us  be  sure  then  to 
secure — 

1.  A  few  related  shapes. 

2.  Pleasing  proportions,  like  the  Greek  golden 
section." 

3.  A  sufficient  base. 

4.  Balance. 

5.  A  pleasing  contrast  of  color-mass  with  connecting 
tones,  or  a  careful  relation  between  the  color  of  a  picture 
or  border  and  of  the  type. 

6.  Movement  of  lines  that  will  carry  the  eye  to  the 
right  point  for  catching  the  most  important  idea. 

7.  Strength  with  harmony. 

The  last  item  is  not  the  least  important.  Too  often 
artistic  designers  get  a  well-balanced  and  attractive- 
looking  advertisement,  but  one  whoUj'  lacking  in  selling 
force.  For  business  purposes,  art  is  of  no  value  except 
as  it  adds  a  greater  effectiveness  to  that  which  is  already 
planned  to  go  straight  to  the  heart  of  a  possible  customer. 

Questions  on  the  Art  o£  Advertising 

1.  What  are  the  psychological  steps  in  the  success 
of  an  advertisement?  "What  three  different  things  may 
an  advertisement  aim  at  accomplishing?    In  general, 


282       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


what  can  you  say  of  the  mind-current  produced  by 
advertising?  What  is  essential,  therefore,  to  getting 
results  ? 

2.  How  does  the  human  mind  give  attention?  Com- 
pare full-page,  half-page,  and  quarter-page  advertise- 
ments as  to  attention-value.  What  effect  does  position 
have  on  attention  ?  How  are  modern  magazines  meeting 
this  principle  ? 

3.  What  is  essential  for  attention  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  an  advertisement? 

4.  How  is  attention  carried  along  in  a  logical  chain  ? 
What  is  the  eye-catcher  ?  What  purpose  must  the  head- 
line serve  ?    What  offices  have  pictures  and  borders  ? 

5.  What  part  does  novelty  play  in  getting  attention, 
and  what  kinds  of  novelty  are  best  suited  to  this  use  ? 

6.  In  what  way  is  color  a  factor  in  advertising  when 
black  and  white  only  is  used  ? 

7.  Where  does  the  center  of  a  vertical  line  appear 
to  be? 

8.  What  are  the  proper  proportions  for  rectangles 
as  found  in  book  or  magazine  pages,  and  also  in  build- 
ings on  prairies  ? 

9.  What  is  the  ''golden  section"  of  the  Greeks,  and 
what  use  is  made  of  it  in  advertising  ? 

10.  How  should  masses  be  arranged  in  an  advertise- 
ment, and  curves  and  straight  lines  harmonized  ?  What 
do  the  Japanese  think  of  our  system  of  bilateral 
balancing  ? 

11.  What  is  the  principle  of  related  shapes? 

12.  Illustrate  the  principle  of  movement  in  adver- 
tising arrangement. 

13.  How  would  you  harmonize  border,  picture,  dis- 
play-line, and  body-type  in  an  advertisement? 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  283 


14.  Summarize  the  principles  of  design  in  an  adver- 
tisement. 

Advertising  Assignment  I 

Turning  over  the  advertising  pages  of  any  periodical, 
find  a  good  illustration  of  each  of  the  principles  stated 
in  the  final  summary,  and  also  an  illustration  of  the 
violation  of  each  principle. 

The  Practical  Drive — Copy 

A  man  standing  on  his  head  in  an  advertisement  might 
attract  attention,  but  it  wouldn't  be  the  kind  of  atten- 
tion that  would  lead  to  buying.  A  pretty  picture  might 
attract  attention,  but  if  it  were  unrelated  to  the  prac- 
tical object  of  making  sales  it  would  still  be  useless. 
A  merely  artistic  advertisement  is  little  better  than  a 
hideously  ugly  one,  and  sometimes  the  hideously  ugly 
one  is  successful  in  spite  of  its  ugliness.  Other  things 
being  equal,  however,  good  attention  value,  backed  up 
by  artistic  attractiveness,  has  brought  you  part  way  on 
the  road  to  success.  Neither  of  these  is  the  compelling 
essential,  however. 

The  element  that  makes  the  practical  drive  of  an 
advertisement  is  the  appeal  to  human  nature.  If  you 
know  the  minds  of  people,  you  can  choose  some  picture 
or  some  phrase  for  a  catch-line  which  will  touch  just  the 
right  spot  in  the  minds  of  a  sufficient  number  of  people, 
and  then  in  strong,  terse,  compelling  words  drive  the 
message  home. 

This  is  what  is  called  writing  copy,''  but  it  is  three- 
fourths  knowing  the  actual  condition  of  the  mind  of 
the  average  man  or  woman  and  what  will  touch  its  tender 
spot  and  produce  the  reaction  that  leads  to  actual  busi- 
ness. 

There  are  three  types  of  copy. 


284        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  first  has  for  its  object  to  brand  the  name  of  the 
article  on  the  mind  of  the  reader,  along  with  an  nncon- 
scions  suggestion  of  supreme  merit.  The  advertising 
of  Pears'  Soap,  Sapolio,  Uneeda  Biscuit,  Gold  Medal 
Flour,  and  Cream  of  Wheat  are  good  examples  of  this 
type.  No  argument  is  possible.  Every  one  knows  and 
admits  the  high  character  and  general  merit  of  each  of 
these.  The  great  thing  is  that  they  should  be  remem- 
bered with  pleasing  associations.  Pears'  Soap  has  a 
beautiful  picture,  kept  fresh  by  constant  change,  sug- 
gestive of  delicacy,  refinement,  and  the  high  tone  of  a 
class  of  people  who  can  afford  to  pay  15c.  for  a  small 
cake  of  really  good  soap.  The  name  is  always  promi- 
nent, because  the  important  thing  is  that  the  name  be 
remembered  when  the  buyer  goes  to  the  druggist. 
Sapolio  has  depended  largely,  of  late  years,  on  the  sug- 
gestiveness  of  its  Spotless  Town.  Gold  Medal  Flour 
secures  a  pleasant  suggestiveness  by  its  phrase  ^^Even- 
tually— ^Why  not  now  ? ' '  This  means  little,  but  it  has  a 
very  fetching  suggestion.  The  smiling  face  of  the  col- 
ored chef  in  the  Cream  of  Wheat  advertising  is  a  sort 
of  trade-mark ;  but  very  distinctly  it  suggests  something 
good  to  eat — something  extra  good — something  in  the 
first-class  hotel  division.  The  pun  in  Uneeda"  is  the 
principal  basis  for  advertising  appeal  there. 

The  second  style  of  advertising  is  that  which  intro- 
duces the  merits  of  some  article  of  unknown  quality 
which  is  to  be  purchased  through  dealers  or  agents.  In 
this  line  there  has  been  no  more  successful  advertising 
than  the  No-Rim-Cut  Tire  and  the  International  Corres- 
pondence School.  The  first  is  frankly  argumentative,  on 
one  argument — these  tires  wear  longer,  and  so  are 
cheaper  in  the  long  run.  There  is  nothing  to  attract  at- 
tention except  the  free,  open  type  in  large  space,  and  the 
words  of  the  catch-lines,  with  the  little  winged  trade- 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  285 


mark  to  fix  in  the  memory.  The  correspondence  school 
presents  over  and  over  in  a  picture,  and  then  in  words, 
the  one  idea  of  the  advantage  the  man  who  knows  has 
over  the  man  who  doesn't  know,  or  the  business  dis- 
advantage of  ignorance. 

The  object  of  this  type  of  advertising  is  to  produce 
inquiries — to  make  people  go  to  dealers  or  agents  with 
a  favorable,  inquiring  mind.  The  coupon  is  an  essential 
part  of  the  machinery  for  getting  in  the  inquiries  by 
mail  for  the  correspondence  school.  The  tire  adver- 
tisement merely  makes  people  ask  at  the  dealer's  when 
they  must  have  tires  and  go  to  get  them. 

The  third  type  of  advertising  is  that  which  is  in- 
tended to  produce  sales  by  mail.  People  will  not  buy 
unless  they  know  the  details  of  what  they  are  buying, 
and  so  these  advertisements  must  have  a  mass  of  small 
type  in  them  sufficient  to  give  the  entire  sales-talk.  To 
secure  this  without  sacrificing  the  attention-values  or 
the  artistic  appearance  is  a  difficult  matter,  and  there 
must  be  the  handicap  of  type  too  small  for  ordinary 
advertising,  which  people  must  be  lured  into  reading 
by  the  few  words  or  lines  in  large  type.  In  this  style 
of  copy,  the  entire  range  of  effective  sales-talk  can  be 
used,  and  a  combination  of  almost  every  form  of  appeal 
is  possible. 

To  summarize,  in  the  first  type  of  copy  we  have 
memory  as  the  leading  element,  coupled  with  pleasant 
suggestion;  in  the  second  type  reason  predominating, 
with  such  pleasant  suggestiveness  as  can  be  added  and 
some  attention  always  paid  to  memory  of  the  trade- 
mark; and  in  the  third  type,  namely  mail-order  adver- 
tising, we  have  a  very  compact  presentation  of  the 
entire  sales-talk,  from  attention-getting  to  actual  sales- 
closing  and  order-producing. 


286        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Producing  Action 

No  advertisement  is  a  good  one  which  does  not  pro- 
duce some  action,  tho  the  action  which  an  advertisement 
induces  is  usually  slight. 

The  memory  type  of  advertisement  causes  the  cus- 
tomer to  ask  for  the  advertised  goods  when  he  wants 
goods  of  that  nature  and  goes  to  a  store  to  buy  them. 
Just  to  remember  to  see  what  that  is,  is  a  slight  thing, 
but  it  is  the  essential  action  to  which  the  advertisement 
must  lead. 

Inquiry-producing  advertisements  are  aided  by  the 
use  of  coupons,  and  there  must  be  something  tangible 
ahead  that  seems  worth  asking  for.  The  customer  does 
not  wish  merely  to  give  himself  away  as  a  possible  buyer. 
If  asked  bluntly  to  express  his  interest  in  the  object 
advertised  he  will  hesitate.  But  if  an  interesting  book- 
let is  offered  which  might  give  him  further  information, 
he  will  ask  for  that.  His  feeling  of  desire  is  often  very 
mild,  and  if  he  must  get  pen  and  ink  and  letter-paper 
and  rack  his  brain  for  the  right  thing  to  say,  he  will 
hesitate,  put  it  off,  and  end  by  failing  to  act  at  all. 
But  if  the  coupon  is  handy,  the  wording  is  printed,  and 
nothing  is  to  be  done  but  sign  one's  name  and  enclose 
in  an  envelop,  even  a  slight  desire  will  produce  the 
action  that  is  necessary. 

In  the  case  of  a  mail-order  advertisement  the  guaranty 
and  approval  feature  is  absolutely  essential  to  pro- 
ducing business.  People  have  been  deceived  so  often 
that  they  will  not  take  chances.  It  is  quite  safe  for 
the  merchant  to  take  chances,  tho  formerly  he  thought 
he  could  not  afford  to  do  so.  The  few  cases  in  which 
the  privilege  is  abused  are  trifling  as  compared  with  the 
total  volume  of  business.  With  that  feature,  the  appeal 
amounts  simply  to  an  invitation  to  see  for  oneself  just 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  287 


what  the  article  is  before  a  final  decision  is  reached. 
An  advertisement  probably  would  not  be  strong  enough 
to  produce  a  final  decision,  but  a  decision  to  examine 
the  goods  offered  is  more  easily  reached  and  for  prac- 
tical purposes  is  just  as  good. 

The  secret  of  closing  sales  is  to  secure  one  small  de- 
cision at  a  time — the  smallest,  simplest,  easiest  that  is 
possible.  If  the  lapse  of  time  will  bring  about  the  final 
decision  automatically,  the  advertiser  has  secured  a 
positive  advantage,  for  human  nature  is  far  more  prone 
to  neglect  than  to  rouse  itself  to  positive  action.  One 
positive  action  must  always  be  secured,  but  that  should 
be  the  easiest  that  will  serve.  All  the  subsequent  actions 
should  be  of  a  negative  character,  the  sale  being  closed 
by  delay  or  mere  failure  to  take  positive  action  to  the 
contrary.  "When  two  or  three  positive  actions  are  re- 
quired, the  volume  of  business  is  sure  to  be  reduced. 

The  actual  resulting  action  depends  to  a  large  extent 
not  only  on  the  final  appeal  for  action,  but  on  the  way 
in  which  the  mind  is  led  straight  from  the  point  of  first 
attention  to  the  point  of  decision.  Often  an  advertise- 
ment develops  plenty  of  interest  in  itself,  but  it  leads 
in  a  roundabout  way  to  the  point  of  action  and  so  the 
mind  of  the  customer  is  likely  to  get  lost  before  he 
reaches  the  point  of  decision  to  act.  The  trend  of  the 
argument  may  not  be  just  exactly  in  the  logical  line 
toward  the  point  of  action,  but  a  trifle  to  one  side  or  the 
other,  and  so  the  final  action  that  should  be  produced  is 
missed  in  a  few  cases,  and  those  few  may  bring  the  ad- 
vertisement below  the  paying-point. 

Many  advertisers  do  not  realize  how  very  clearly,  how 
very  specifically  and  in  detail  the  customer  must  be  told 
just  where  to  go,  just  what  to  ask  for,  just  how  to  go 
about  getting  the  thing  he  is  vaguely  interested  in. 

Usually  also  the  suggestive  effectiveness  of  a  simple 


288        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


and  direct  command  should  be  employed.  Earely  is  a 
hint  or  a  suggestion  sufficient.  The  advertiser  says  over 
and  over,  Do  it !  Do  it !  Do  it !  There  is  an  unquestion- 
able tendency  in  the  human  mind  to  follow  a  command, 
especially  when  it  is  given  with  clearness  and  energy. 

Also  extreme  energy  in  an  advertising  appeal  seems  to 
induce  energy  in  the  reader,  who  can  work  off  this  in- 
duced energy  in  no  better  way  than  taking  the  action 
that  is  suggested  and  is  so  simple  and  obvious. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  say  once  more  emphatically,  NO 
ADVEETISEMENT  CAN  BE  CALLED  SUCCESS- 
FUL WHICH  DOES  NOT  LEAD  DIEECTLY  TO 
SOME  DESIEED  ACTION. 

Questions  on  the  Preparation  of  Copy 

1.  Summarize  the  best  ways  of  getting  attention  in 
a  display  advertisement. 

2.  "What  is  the  thing  that  makes  the  practical  drive 
in  an  advertisement?  On  what  does  success  in  writing 
copy  depend? 

3.  Describe  the  first  of  the  three  types  of  copy  and 
give  illustrations  of  it. 

4.  Describe  and  illustrate  the  second  type  of  copy. 

5.  Describe  and  illustrate  the  third  type  of  copy. 

6.  "What  are  the  essential  mental  processes  in  the 
appeal  of  each  type. 

7.  How  does  the  memory-type  produce  action? 

8.  How  does  the  argumentative  type  produce  action  ? 

9.  How  does  mail-order  copy  produce  action? 

10.  What  is  the  secret  of  closing  sales  ? 

11.  Mention  causes  of  failure  to  get  desired  action. 

12.  What  two  special  means  may  be  used  to  force 
action  directly? 


289 


Face  Charm 

The  outHne  of  the  features 
does  not  in  itself  constitute 
the  chief  charm  of  a  face.  It 
is  the  ^something  more'  that 
is  made  up  of  expression, 
grace,  color  and  complexion, 
that  gives  the  true  distinc- 
tive note. 

The  tone  of  the  face  is  al- 
most exclusively  a  matter  of 
the  complexion;  and  it  is  in 
the  cultof  the  complexion  that 

Pears' 


holds  the  position  of  pre- 
eminence in  every  part  of 
the  world.  It  has  done  more 
for  the  spread  of  face  charm 
than  any  other  known  agent. 

The  most  celebrated  beau- 
ties of  the  last  hundred  and 
twenty  years  have  testified 
to  its  matchless  power  in  pre- 
serving and  improving  the 
complexion,  and  the  skin  spe- 
cialists have  said  the  same* 

The  charm  of  a  beautiful  com- 
plexion is  the  natural  result  of 
the  use  of  Pears  which  surpasses 
all  other  soaps,  in  skin-beautify- 
ing properties  and  economy. 

The  Great  English  Complexion  Soap 


"All  rights  secured" 

OF  ^LL  JCENTED  JOJiPS  PEERS'  OTTO  OF  ROSS  iS  T0jS  BEST 


The  Simplest  Form  of  Suggestive  Beauty  Advertisement 


290 


IIUaiAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  Suggestive  Picture,  the  Suggestive  Word,  and  the  Brand  Name  to  be 
Imprest  on  the  Memory 


MAGAZINE  ADVERTISING 


291 


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nomes  of  Distinction 
From  coast  to  coast  you  will  find  many 
homes  that  owe  their  charm  and  distinction 
to  the  fact  that  they  are  faced  with 

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They  are  homes  of  men  and  women  who  buy  the  facing  for  their 
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Careful  investigation  has  convinced  them  that  only  in  Hy-tex 
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Houses  faced  with  Hy-tex  are  slightly  higher  in  first  cost  than  frame  and 
Other  cheap  construction,  but  saving  in  fuel,  insurance  premiums  and  up-keep 
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Isn't  Hy-tex  worthy  of  your  consideration  before  you  select  the  facing 
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292 


HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Unseen  Forces  Behind  Your  Telephone 

THE  telephone .  instrument  is  a  common  sight,  but  it  affords  no  idea  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  mechanical  equipment  by  which  it  is  made  effective. 

To  give  you  some  conception  of  the  great  number  of  persons  and  the  enormous 
quantity  of  materials  required  to  maintain  an  always-efficient  service,  various 
comparisons  are  here  presented. 

The  cost  of  these  materials  unassembled  is  only 
4S%  of  the  cost  of  constructing  the  telephone  plant. 


Poles 

enough  to  build  a  stock- 
ade around  California  — 
12.480,000  of  them,  worth 
in  the  lumber  yard  about 
$40,000,000. 


Wire 

to  coil  around  the  earth 
621  times— 15.460,000 
miles  of  it,  worth  about 
$100,000,000,  includ- 
ing 260,000  tons  of 
copper,  worth  $88.- 
000,000. 

Lead  and  Tin 

to  load  6,600  coal  cars 
—being  659,960,000 
pounds,  worth  more 
than  $37,000,000. 

Conduits 

to  go  five  times  through 
the  earth  from  pole  to 
pole  — 225.778,000 
feet,  worth  in  the  ware- 
house $9,000,000. 


Telephones 

enough  to  string  around 
Lake  Erie— 8,000,000 
of  them,  5,000,000  Bell- 
owned,  which,  with 
equipment,  cost  at  the 
factory  $45,000,000. 

Switchboards 

in  a  line  would  extend 
thirty-six  miles-55,000 
of  them,  which  cost,  un- 
assembled, $90,000,000. 

Buildings 

sufficient  to  house  a  city  of 
1 50,000— more  than  a  thou- 
sand buildings,  which,  un- 
furnished, and  without  land* 
cost  $44,000,000. 


People 

equal  in  numbers  to  the 
entire  population  of  Wy- 
oming—1  50,000  Bell  Sys- 
tem employes,  not  in- 
cluding those  of  connect- 
ing companies. 


The  poles  are  set  all  over  this  country,  and  strung  with  wires  and  cables;  the 
conduits  are  buried  under  the  great  cities;  the  telephones  are  installed  in  separate 
homes  and  offices;  the  switchboards  housed,  connected  and  supplemented  with 
other  machinery,  and  the  whole  Bell  System  kept  in  running  order  so  that  each 
eubscriber  may  talk  at  any  time,  anywhere. 


American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company 

And  Associated  Companies 
One  Policy  One  System  Universal  Service 


An  Interesting  Short  Story,  Illustrated  and  Displayed 


MAGAZINE  ADVERTISING 


293 


Five  Policie^s  In  One 


— Secure  against  loss  through  burglary  or  theft. 
— Secure  against  loss  through  glass-breakage. 

— Secure  against  loss  through  damage  by  water  or  explosion  of  boilers. 
— Secure  against  loss  through  injury  to  servants  or  guests  on  the  premises. 
— Secure  against  loss  of  rent  through  fire  and  other  calamities. 

YouneedTHE  ETNA'S 

Comtination  Residence  Policy 

(Sold  in  States  where  authorized) 

if  you  value  a  feeling  of  absolute  security  against  all  possible  financial  loss. 

Fill  in,  tear  off  and  mail  back  coupon  NOW 

TO  THE  /ETNA  ACCIDENT  AND  Ll AmLITY  CoVh Ar'tV^^^  "      "     {Tear  off) 

Everybody's       Please  mail  me  full  particulars  of  your  Combination  Residence  Policy, 
My  Name  and  Address  .  li—i— . 


Confused  Effect  Through  Equal  Eye-Movement  in  Many  Directions 


294  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


A  regular 

ravorite—  ^^-^^^^ 


A  soup  that  everybody  enjoys.  Just  the  savory  nourishing 
dish  you  want  to  help  out  a  slender  dinner;  give  character 
to  a  luncheon;  or  add  tasty  substance  to  any  meal — 

OX  TAIL 

OUP 

It  is  made  from  selected  meaty  ox  tails  prepared  with 
utmost  nicety  and  care.  The  sliced  joints  are  combined 
with  carrots,  turnips,  barley,  celery  and  herbs  in  a  rich 
tomato  puree  which  is  flavored  with  dry  Spanish  sherry  of 
our  own  importation. 

You  could  not  imagine  a  more  wholesome 
and  satisfying  soup.  Prove  this  yourself  ^o^ 
day.    Your  money  back  if  not  satisfied. 


.21  kinds       10c  a  can 


Harry  Hooper  hiked 

ashore, 
And  cried,  "there's 

Campbell's  label, 
Just  look.  I'll  hook 
Two  cases  more 
To  grace  the  Captain's 

table". 


Celery 
Chicken 

Chicken  Gumbo{Okra) 
Clam  Bouillon 


Clam  Chowder 
Consomme 
Julienne 
Mock  Turtle 
Mulligatawny 
Mutton  Broth 
Ox  Tail 


Pea. 

Pepper  Pot 

Printanier 

Tomato 

Tomato-Okra 

Vegetable 

Vermicelli-Tomato 


Look  for  the  red-and- white  label 


Playing  up  the  Leader,  with  List  Very  Small 


MAGAZINE  ADVERTISING 


295 


Judge  by  What  It  Did  ^ 


In  this  day  of  Light  Sixes,  with  some  3 1  models, 
thousands  of  men  ask,  "Which  is  best?"' 

Can  you  pick  out  the  coming  leader  in  a  crovvJ 
of  college  students?  Or  say  what  leading  man  of 
now  will  attain  a  monument  ? 

Nor  can  you  in  cars.  None  can  be  judged  by 
prospects  or  promises.  The  verdict  of  history  alone 
is  decisive. 

Hudson  Has  a  History 

The  HUDSON  Light  Six,  in  last  year's  model 
and  this  one,  has  been  driven  some  30.  million  miles 
in  the  hands  of  over  12,000  owners.  What  those 
men  say  is  history.  Any  user  will  tell  you  that  the 
HUDSON  has  proved  itself  faultless,  sturdy,  eco- 
nomical, ideal. 

Then  the  history  of  former  HUDSONS  gives 
confidence  in  this.  The  HUDSON  success  is  mar- 
velous. And  it  grows  with  experience,  HUDSON 
sales  have  trebled  in  the  past  two  years. 

The  history  of  Howard  E.  Coffin,  this  car's  fa- 
mous designer,  is  another  convincing  factor.  He  is  a 
12-year  leader  in  motor  car  engineering.  His  models 
have  always  been  right.  They  have  always  estab- 
lished a  new  high  mark  in  their  class. 

IsThis-or-That  Car  Like  the  Hudson? 

Our  dealers  are  asked — perhaps  a  thousand  times 
daily — "How  does  This- or -That  car  compare  with 
the  HUDSON?"  Outside  of  appearance  and  evi- 
dent features,  no  one  can  answer  thai.. 


The  Light  Six  Is  a  new  type.  In  its  Creation,  all 
old-time  standards  had  to  be  revised.  It  involves  a 
new-type  motor.  It  requires  special  steels.  To  attain 
this  lightness  a  thousand  parts  had  to  be  re-designed. 

The  Lieht  Six,  to  be  sturdy,  must  have  exceptional 
quality.  The  questions  of  strength  and  endurance, 
upkeep  and  repair,  must  be  answered  by  time  and 
tests.  In  the  HUDSON  those  questions  are  an- 
swered. 

Waste  Is  Unpopular 

The  Light  Six  is  in  vogue  now  because  waste  k 
unpopular.  Needless  size  and  ^veight,  with  their 
over-tax,  offend  the  spirit  of  the  times. 

The  HUDSON  is  this  Light  Six  type  carried  tO 
perfection.  It  shows  the  result  of  four  years  of  refine- 
ment. Every  part  and  detail  shows  the  final  touch. 
And  it  is  a  time-tested  production.- 

Its  supremacy  shows  In  lines  and  finish,  In  luxury 
and  equipment,  in  its  evident  class.  These  facts,  with 
its  history,  will  make  it  your  first  choice.  Now  is  the 
time  to  prove  that — before  the  over-demand  which 
comes,  to  every  .leading  model  every  spring. ' 

7-Pa$senger  Phaeton,  $1550,  f.  o.  b.  Detroit 
Four  other  body  styles 

The  HUDSON  Company  never  loses  interest  la 
the  cars  it  sells.  So  long  as  a  car  Is  in  service  \s'q- 
maintain  our  interest  in  the  character  of  its  service. 
That's  one  great  reason  for  HUDSON  reputation. 


HUDSON  MOTOR  CAR  COMPANY.  DETROIT.  MICH. 


The  Argumentative  Type 


296  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


How  the  name  "Borden"  guarantees 
the  purity  of  milk 

The  Borden  Company  receives- every  year  1,250,000,000  pounds  of  milk  supplied  by 
250,000  cows,  delivered  from  12,000  dairy  farms. 

This  milk  is  inspected,  cooled,  pasteurized,  condensed,  evaporated  and  otherwise 
cared  for  in  150  different  plants,  located  in  15  states  and  provinces, 
Borden's  fresh  milk  is  delivered  every  morning  over  the  two  largest  milk  routes  in 
the  world— New  York  and  Chicago.  Yesterday's  milking  is  on  today's  breakfast  tables. 
Borden's  Condensed  Milk  and  Evaporated-  Milk  are  sold  in  every  town  and  by  prac- 
tically every  grocer  in  North  America. 

Upon  the  right  handling  of  milk  the  first  few  hours  after  milking  depends  its  purity, 
just  as  on  the  right  feeding  and  care  of  the  cow  depends  the  quality.  The  washing 
of  the  cow,  the  sterilizing  of  the  hands  of  the  milker,  protection  from  the  air,  the 
quickness  of  -the  cooling,  all  these  steps  make  Borden's 


MILK 


in  all  its  forms  —  fresh,  condensed,  evaporated,  malted,  cultured  —  a  syrribol  for 
purity  and  quality. 

BORDEN'S  CONDENSED  MILK  CO. 

NEW  YORK 


Eefined  and  Well-Balaneed  Page  from  Large-Size  Weekly 


MAGAZINE  ADVEKTISING 


297 


60  Million  Corns 

Have  Been  Ended  in  This  Simple  Blue=jayWay 


Please  mark  this— you  who  suffer  corns. 

About  half  the  corns  that  develop  today  are  being  removed  by 
Blue-jay.  And  yours  can  be  ended  any  time  in  this  easy, 
pleasant  way. 

Corns  are  not  as  common  as  they  used  to  be.  But  that  fact  is  not 
due  to  any  difference  in  shoes. 

It  is  due  to  the  chemist  who 
invented  Blue-jay,  after  working 
for  years  on  this  corn  problem. 

A  Million  a  Month 

Now  about  one  million  corns 
monthly  are  being  removed — com- 
pletely removed— by  Blue-jay. 
And  this  is  the  method: 

Folks  apply  Blue-jay  at  night 
—it  is  done  in  a  jiffy.  Pain  ceases 
from  that  instant  and  the  corn  is 
forgotten. 

Then  slowly  and  gently  Bluft- 
jay  loosens  the  corn.  In  two 
days  it  comes  out  —  root,  callus 
and  all— without  any  pain  or 
trouble.  Nine  times  in  ten  this 
happens.  One  corn  in  ten — the 
stubborn  corn — needs  a  second 
application. 

That  removed  corn  is  ended. 
New  corns  may  come  if  you  pinch 
the  feet,  but  the  old  corn  is  gone 
completely. 

That  seerrts  too  good  to  be 
true.  But  remember.  Blue-jay 
has.  actually  done  this  with  sixty 
million  corns.  It  is  doing  it  daily 
all  around  you.  Your  very  neigh- 
bors know  that  Blue-jay  means 
freedom  from  all  corns. 


Then  Why  are  Corns? 

Then  why  are  there  any  corns  It  is  simply  because  some  don't 
know  Blue-jay,  and  some  can't  believe  what  we  say. 

Some  of  those  people  merely  pare  corns — coddle  them — keep  them 
year  after  year.    One-tenth  the  time  of  a  single  paring  would  end 
the  corn  with  Blue-jay. 

Some  have  used  old-time  meth- 
ods until  they  feel  that  nothing 
really  ends  a  corn. 

Yet  corns  by  the  millions  arc 
ended  forever  for  people  who  use 
Blue-jay.  And  all  those  people 
know  that  corns  are  needless. 

5  Cents  and  5  Seconds 


age,  to  remove  a  corn  with 
Blue-jay.  And  five  seconds 
will  apply  it. 

That  is  all  there  is.  No  aftei; 
treatment,  no  pain,  no  trouble,  no 
inconvenience.  Just  let  Blue-jay 
undermine  the  corn. 

If  you  doubt  this,  ask  for  sam- 
ples. Let  us  take  out  one  corn 
free.  Or  go  to  your  druggist  to- 
day and  get  Blue-jay.  Apply  it 
tonight  and  watch  results  in  two 
days.  It  will  not  take  long  to 
convince  you. 

But  don't  take  some  ancient, 
ineffective  treatment.  There  is 
nothing  else  like  Blue-jay.  Its 
invention  has  made  obsolete  the 
petty,  unscientific  ways  which 
were  used  for  treating  corns. 

Insist  on  the  modern  way. 


Paring  simply  remove: 


Blue=jay 

Ends  Corns 

Stopj  the  Pain  Instantly.  Removes  Com;,  in  Two  Days. 
15  and  2S  Cents -at  Druggistj, 
Samples  Free  on  Request. 


Bauer  &  Black  Makers  of  Surgical  Dressings  and  Physicians' supplies  ChlCagO  and  NcwYorlc 


Good  Magazine  Advertisements  Nowadaj^s  Combine  Half-Tones  and 
Pen-and-ink  Drawings 


298  HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Nearly  Always 

Some  Bad  Judgment 

About  food  or  drink  causes  the  headaches,  sleeplessness, 
bowel  troubles,  heart  failure,  nervousness  and  a  dozen 
and  one  other  disturbances. 

It's  easy  to  prove  whether  or  not 

Coffee 

is  the  hidden  cause. 

Some  persons  are  really  anxious  enough  to  recover 
lost  health  to  make  the  experiment  and  find  out. 

Qyit  coffee  absolutely  for  1 0  days  and  use  hot,  well-made 

It  supplies  a  hot 
table  beverage  with 
a  coffee  color  and 
a  snappy  flavour 
much  resembling 
Old  Dutch  Java, 

Postum  is  pure  and  absolutely  free  from  caffeine,  or  drug  of  any 
kind. 

If  the  aches  and  ails  begin  to  disappear  in  a  few  days,  you  will 
know  how  to  avoid  that  kind  of  trouble  in  the  future. 

Postum  comes  in  two  forms: 

Regular  Postum — must  be  well  boiled. 

Instant  Postum  is  a  soluble  powder.  A  teaspoonful  dissolves 
quickly  in  a  cup  of  hot  water  and,  with  the  addition  of  cream  and 
sugar,  makes  a  delicious  beverage  instantly. 

It*s  a  lot  of  fun  to  be  perfectly  well. 

"There's  a  Reason"  for  POSTUM 


A  genuine  food- 
drink  madeof  wheat 
and  a  small  percent 
of  New  Orleans  mo- 
lasses. 


Open,  Easy  Reading,  in  Uniform  Type 


MAGAZINE  ADVERTISING 


299 


The  Things  Women 
Keep  Quiet  About 

What  nearly  all  women  go  through 
and  don^t  tell  the  men 

Here  they  are  brought  out  into  the  day- 
light for  the  first  time:  the  reticences  that 
so  many  have:  the  Httle,  but  big,  things 
that  hurt  so  badly  but  that  women  can't  talk 
about:  the  curtains  of  mist  that  so  often 
fall  between  husband  and  wife:  the  battles 
that  so  many  wives  fight  in  the  dark — 
and  all  in  silence.  Here  women  not  only 
tell  of  them,  but  in  each  ^ ^confession"  is 
*'the  way  out"  that  so  many  women  are 
groping  for,  clearly  shown  from  actual 
experience. 

The  series  is  in 

The  October  LADIES'  HOME  JOURNAL 

IS  Cents:  On  Sale  Everywhere 

THE  CURTIS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY,  INDEPENDENCE  SQUARE,  PHILADELPHIA 


The  Editor  Believes  in  the  Simple  Force  of  Ideas 


300  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


One  Motorcycle  Tire 

Holds  Every  World's  Record— Dominates  in  Sales 
And  Equips  %  of  All  the  New  Machines 

It  is  built  by  Goodyear — built  just  the  same  as  Goodyear  auto- 
mobile tireg,  which  have  won  top  place  in  Motordom.  Consider 
that — one  maker  holds  the  leading  place  both  in  motor  car  and 
motorcycle  tires,  despite  tremendous  rivalry.  In  three  years 
Goodyears  have  gained  topmost  place  in  Tiredom.  And  the  only 
reason  lies  in  super- service  proved  by  millions  of  these  tires. 

Why  Take  a  Chance? 


Rival  makers,  of  course,  must  say, 
**Our  tires  are  as  good  as  Goodyears." 
But  look  at  the  evidence. 

How  is  it  that  Goodyears  won  all 
the  world's  records  in  speed  and  dura- 
bility tests? 

How  is  it  that  Goodyears,  in  the  test 
of  time,  came  to  outsell  others? 

Why  is  it  that  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  1914 
motorcycles  come  out 
with  Goodyear  equip- 
ment ?  ^  


And  look  at  automo- 
biles. Those  tires  must 
also  stand  fearful 
strain  and  grind. 
And  most  users 
meter  their  mile- 
age. Goodyears 
in  that  field  have 
outrivaled  all 
others.  Now  they 
have  won  in  both 


VJ  ,AJ^  AKRON.  OHIO 


Motorcycle  Tires 


fields  by  giving  most  of  what  you 
desire  in  a  motorcycle  tire. 

Then  why  take  chances?  No  tire,  in 
any  way,  offers  more  than  Goodyears. 
You  pay  no  more  for  Goodyears  than 
for  other  standard  makes.  No  good 
tire  coscs  you  less.  And  the  verdict  of 
users  —  the  final  verdict  as  shown  by 
sales  — is  that  Goodyears 
are  best. 

Made  with  a  double- 
thick  anti-skid  tread. 
Made  by  a  patent  method 
to  prevent  tread  separa- 
tion. Made  to  hold  for- 
ever the  place  they 
hold  today. 

There  is  a  Good- 
year dealer  in  your 
town.  Ask  us  for  his 
address  —  also  for  our 
book  which  pictures 
and  describes  the 
making  of  Goodyear 
tires. 


THE  GOODYEAR  TIRE  &  RUBBER  COMPANY,  Akron,  Ohio 


Toronto,  Canada 


London,  England 


Mexico  City,  Mexico 


Brandiei  and  Agencies  m  103  Principal  Cities    Dealers  Everywhere    Write  Us  on  Anything  You  Want  in  Rubber 


Skilful  Display  of  Type  with  a  Touch  of  Illustration  by  Lord  &  Thomas's 
$70,000  Copy-Writer.    (Notice  Trade-Mark) 


MAGAZINE  ADVERTISING 


Note  How  Goodyears 

Dominate  in  Every  Street 


You  Can  See  That 
Men  Prefer  Them 

No  man  can  doubt — if  he  looks  around 
— that  Goodyear  tires  have  best  met  men's 
requirements. 

Note  what  a  percentage  ot  motonsts 
have  adopted  them  —  men  who  want 
quality  tires.  .  Goodyear  tires,  after  15 
years  of  testing,  outsell  any  other. 


Those  Goodyear  users  number  hundreds 
of  thousands.  Together  they  have  tried 
out  more  than  four  million  Goodyear  tires. 

They  are  men  like  you— with  wants 
like  yours.    They  seek  safety  and 
sturdiness,  freedom  from  trouble. 
They  look  for  low  cost  per  mile, 
just  as  you  do. 

They  have  decided,  in  this  over- 
whelming way,  that  Goodyear  tires 
excel.  And  today  the  cars  with 
Goodyear  equipment  would  reach 
a  thousand  miles,  placed  end  to 
end. 

Doesn't  that  suggest  that,  when 
you  know  what  these  men  know, 
you'll  also  use  these  tires  ? 


All-Weather 
Treads 

This  is  another  exclusive 
Goodyear  feature  —  this  tough, 
double-thick  anti-skid.  The 
grips  are  deep  and  enduring, 
sharp-edged  and  resistless.  Yet 
they  are  flat  and  regular. 

Here  is  all  of  a  plain  tread's 
smoothness,  combined  with  ex- 
tra thickness,  extra  toughness  and 
a  bulldog  grip.  .  What  other 
tread,  however  _  costly,  meets 
winter  needs  like  this? 


Fortified  Tires 

Goodyear  Fortified  Tires  are  the  only 
tires  which  have  our  No-Rim-Cut  feature. 
That  combats  rim-cultinjz  in  the  best  way 
known. 

They  are  the  only  tires  which  get  the 
"  On-Air "  cure,  on  which  we  spend 
$450,000  yearly.  That  ends  a  major 
cause  of  blowouts. 

By  a  patent  method — used  by  us  alone 
' — we  reduce  by  60  per  cent  the  risk  of 
tread  separation. ' 


AKRON.  OHIO 

Fortified  Tires . 

The  only  No-Rim-Cut  Tires 
The  only"On-Air"Cured  Tires 
The  only  All- Weath.    ~  " 


Thus  we  directly  combat  the  chief 
causes  of  tire  ruin  in  ways  em- 
ployed by  no  other  maker.  Thus 
we  save  tire  users  millions.  Thus 
we  avoid  for  them  countless  tire 
troubles. 

'In  addition  we  spend  $  1 00,000 
yearly  in  laboratory  work  to  insure 
you  the  utmost  in  a  quality  tire. 

Those  are  the  resistless  reasons 
which  are  bringing  men  by  the 
legions  to  these  Fortified  Tires. 
And  they  are  bound  to  bring  you. 


Ask  any  dealer  for  Goodyear 
Fortified  Tires  and  he  will  supply 
you  tires  such  as  we  describe. 

The  Goodyear  Tire  &  Rubber 
Company,  Akron,  Ohio 


A  Suggestive  Picture  Sometimes  Helps  the  Argument 


302 


HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


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303 


"lRWIN"-ABhofPerfecli 


ion 


A  Bit  of  toughest  steel  for  the  tough, 
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js  stamped  on  the 
shank— that  bit  is  bound  to  be 
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THE  IRWIN  AUGER  BIT  COMPANY,  Wilmington,  Ohio 


Union  ^s^7\\  Chucks 

with  two  sets  of  jaws 


Made  in  a  wide  range  of  sizes 

Union  Mfg.  Co.,  New  Britain,  Conn. 


This  VEST  POCKET  SNIP  00 

It  will  cut  anything  up  to  18  gauge.    Made  of  Crucible 
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send  your  order  direct  to  us. 


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LUTHER  GRINDER  MFG.  GO. 

982  J>oint  St.  MILWAUKEE,  WIS. 


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A  device  for  holding  Plane  Irons,  Chisels 
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Price,  Each,  90c 

If  you  cannot  procure  this  tool  from  your  hard- 
ware dealer,  we  will  send  same,  postage  pre- 
paid, on  receipt  of  the  price  mentioned  above. 


-ADDRESS - 


Stanley  Rule  &  Level  Cd. 

New  Britain,  Conn.  U.S.A. 


Send  for  YOUR  copy 
of  Booklet  of  3,000 

RED  DEVILS 


Have  long  been  the  standard  by  which  others  have  beea  judged. 
That  is  why  unscrupulous  dealers  will  say,  when  offering  a  sub- 
stitution, "  It's  about  as  good,  as  a  RED  DEVIL."    But  try  a 

RED  DEVIL  No.  1024— 6|  Inches 

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makes  it  easy  to  get  into  close  places.    Jt  has  beautiful  gun  metal  dentyne 
milled  handles.  U  your  dealer  can't  supply,  send  50  cents  for  one  sample  only 


Red 
Devil 
Tools 


^^^^ 


SMITH  Sc  HEMENWAY  CO.,  Inc. 

161  Chamber.  Street    NEW  YORK  CITY 


A  Confused-Looking  Pago  in  Ugly  Type.    Advertisements  Should  Beware 
of  Bad  Company 


304  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Sensitive,  avoiding  the  lime-light,  this  is  the  whimsical  answer  that 

O.  HENRY 


America's  greatest  short-story  writer — made  when 
the  world  tried  to  lionize  him:  "Oh,  pshaw!  Leave 
me  alone !  I  am  just  a  poor  boy  from  the  country." 

He  preferred  the  shadows  of  the  street 
corners, where  hecould  gazeupon  the  hur- 
rying stream  of  life,  deep  into  the  hearts  « 
of  men,  and  picture  foryou  the  generosity, 
ferocity,  kindliness,  vvant,  devotion,  the 
laughterand  themockery,thefeverish  activity  " 
and  the  stark  despair — all  the  complex  inter- 
play of  human  emotions  which  go  to  make  life. 

All  this  he  compressed  into  274  of  the  greatest 
stories  that  ever  were  written.  Packed  into  twelve 
rich  volumes — yours  today  for  a  little  price  and 
little  payments  for  a  short  time  only. 


And  in  the  bargain,  just  to  spread  this  edition  to  every  corner  of  the  country 
at  once,  you  get  without  extra  charge  the  best  of  Kipling,  in  six  rich  volumes, 
J.79  stories  and  poems  and  his  great  long  novel,  "The  Light  That  Failed." 

Send  Coupon  for  18  Volumes, 

O  Henrv  Short  Stories 

2  Complete  Novels 


by  the  greatest  English  and  the  great- 
est American  short-stoVy  writers.  Half 
a  million  dollars  is  what  these  writers 
would  have  been  paid  for  these  stories 
f  — 50,000  people  have  rushed  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  this  offer. 

The  first  complete  edition  of  O. 
Henry's  works  sold  at  $125,  and  every 
set  was  taken  before  the  sheets  were  in 
their  covers.    Already  O. -Henry  has  be- 
come a  classic.    His  biography  is  being 
written  in  books  and  magazines,  his 
stories  are  dramatized  for  the  stage  and 
for  the  jnoving-pictures,  the  text-books  of 


Kipling  / 

American  literature  embody  them, 
sculptors  are  making  statues  —  col-  .^^^ 
leges  are  discussing  his  place  in  .j?\0 
literature.  fe*^" 
■   This  offer  is  passing.    The  roy-  ^  ^ 

alties  on  both  the  Kipling  and  the 
O.  Henry  are  heavy  and  we  can't  ^ 
afford  to  make  this  a  perma-  ^^-^^^^ 
nent  thing.  Only  the  demand  ^v'^f^'^^ 
of  thousands-of  disappoint- 
ed  book-lovers  caused  us    ^  »- 


to  extend  it  for  these  few  ^.C  ^S^i^i 
weeks  more.  ^  A*  iJ-^Q..<N'' 

Send  No  Money  With  the  Coupon 


if  they're  not  the  biggest,  the  best  thing  in  the  covers  of  a  book  you    ^ ^ :?'^9*^ 
ever  saw  or  read.  '^'^^^^^  ^^--^ '^^-''"'^ '^'^^^"^^^ — r^^  ^u^t^  ^r-c.  r^^,^ 
ftianent, 
are  the  living; 
34th  Street  : 
to  the  ranch 

it  is  too  late.    Get  both  sets  shipped  at  once  free  on  approval.  .^4^ 

25c  a  week  pays  for  them.   Send  the  ^(>';-,\c>^i" 
coupon  and  put  the  full  set  on  your  ^ 
library  shelves  and  new  joy  in  your  heart.  ^^l^,*-*"  *^ 

Don't  wait  till  to-morrow  and  be  sorry. 
Send  coupon  to-day  and  be  glad. 


REVIEW  OF  REVIEWS  CO.,  30  Imng  Place,NewYork      Sv^'  /  /  o4^#/ ^ 


Ugly,  Compact,  but  Successful  Mail-Order  Advertisement.    The  Coupon  is 
Necessary  for  Getting  Orders 


MAGAZINE  ADVERTISING 


305 


DIAMONDS' WATCHES  cr°eS.t 


LOFTIS 

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$eOl  TERMS: 
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prepaid.  Other  sizes  and 
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$100.  See  our  Catalog. 
Sent  Free  — 
""'^^i^^  request. 
Big 

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eed  25  .yeQ 


Ev( 


LOFTIS  BB^OS.  &  CO.,  National  Credit  Jewelers 

Dept.  D894  too  to  t08  N.  Stat0  St.      CHICAGO,  ILUNOIS 

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Here  is  th*-  sure,  economical  way 
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Keep  till  used  without  ice — grow 
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Try  a  box    ._  

send  a  box  to  your  best  friend  for 
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box  delivered,  all  charges  prepaid; 
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J.  WAINWRIGHT.  JR. 
Overbrook  Narseriet 
Cocoanut  Grove,  Florida 


Good  Mail-Order  Advertisements 


306 


HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Your  Future  Depends 
On  Yourself 

A  few  years  hence,  then  "what? 
Will  you  still  be  an  untrained,  under- 
paid worker,  or  will  you  be  a  specialist 
in  your  chosen  line,  where  you  can 
earn  more  in  one  day  than  the  un- 
trained man  earns  in  a  week? 

Your  future  depends  on  yourself.  You 
must  decide  NOW.  The  way  to  avoid 
the  hard  road  of  disappointment  and  fail- 
ure is  to  get  the  special  training  that  will 
command  the  attention  and  a  better 
salary  from  the  man  higher  up. 

Are  you  interested  enough  in  your 
future  to  learn  how  the  International 
Correspondence  Schools  can  fit  you  for 
a  better  job  ? 

No  matter  where  you  live,  how  little 
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Choose. a  high-salaried  future. 
Mark  and  mail  the  coupon  NOW 


Salesmanship 
Electrical  Engineer 
Elec.  Lierhtingr  Supt. 
Telephone  Expert 
Arohi  tect 

Building  Contractor 
Arehitectaral  Draftsman 
Structural  Engrineer 
Concrete  Constnietion 
Mechan.  Engrineer 
Ueehanipal  Draftsman 
Civil  Engrineer 
Mine  Snperintendent 
Stationary  Engrineer 
PIambin«r  &  Steam  Fitting: 
Gas  Engrines 


Civil  Service 
Booklieepingr 
Stenographs  &  Typewriting 
Window  Trimming 
Show  Card  Writing 
Lettering  and  Sign  Painting 
Advertising 
Commerriai  Illnstrating 
Industrial  Pesigming 
Commercial  Law 
Antomobile  Rnnning 
English  Branches 
Poultry  Farming 
Teacher  Spanish 
Agrlcnltnre  French 
Chemist  German 


Name  

Present  Employer  _ 

Street  and  No  

■City  


INTERNATIONAL  CORRESPONDENCE  SCHOOLS 

Box922i    SCRANTON,  PA. 
Explain,  without  any  obligation  on  lay  part,  how 
I  can  qualify  for  the  position  before  wliich  1  mark  X« 


The  Picture,  the  Headline,  and  the 
Argument  in  Effective  Order 


REINTO 


CUTlCUm 
50AP 

Assisted  by  occasional  use  of 
Cuticura  Ointment  does  so 
much  to  I<eep  your  skin  clear, 
scalp  clean  and  free  from  dan- 
druff, hair  live  and  glossy, 
and  hands  soft  and  white, 
that  not  to  use  them  is  to  fail 
in  your  duty  to  yourself. 

Cuticura  Soap  'and  Cuticura  Ointment  are  sold 
througbout  the  world.  Send  post-card  to  nearest 
depot  for  free  sample  of  each,  with  32-page  book : 
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MulJIer.  Maclean  &  Co.,  Calcutta  and  Bombay; 
Potter  Drug  and  Chem.  CorpT,  Boston,  U.  R.  A. 

B®->1ea  who  shave  and  shampoo  with  Cuticura 
8oap  will  find  it  best  for  9ktn  aod  scalp. 


Special    Type    and  Outline 
Drawing  are  as  Good  as 
a    Trade-Mark  for 
this  Series 


NEWSPAPER  ADVEETISING 


307 


Good,  Light  Newsjjaper  Style  for  Light-Minded  People.    High  Attention 
Value.    By  Dobbs 


308 


HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


MARSHALL  FIELD 
<&  COMPANY 

September  Sales 
Begin  Tuesday. 

Merchandise  that  appeals  to  every  woman  at 
prices  that  demand  attention  has  been  prepared 
in  the  sections  devoted  to  the  following  lines: 

Blankets  and  Comforters, 
Longcloths  and  Boxed  Nainsooks, 
Outing  and  Shaker  Flannels, 
Bedspreads. 

The  Type  Display  is  Ideal 


NEWSPAPEE  ADVERTISING 


309 


HAVEN 

FOR  A  GENUINE  OUTING 

Boating,  Bathing  and  Dwicirig 

PEARS,  PEACHES  ^  EARLY  APPLES 

are  ripe  asd  wai  tins  for  you.   Get  out  ia to  the  real  country  —  away  irom  tfre  big  city — 


via  the 


CITY  OF  SOUTH 


Big  Stesi 
Steamship 

Leaves  Chicago  9;  30  a.  m.  gj  ^ 
daily,  except  Saturday  2  p.  ^ 
m.  and  Sunday  at  10  a.  lo.  , 

WAUKEGAN  and  RETURN 

3  10  a.  m.  except  Sunday  Home  6:30  in  time  ^orJTwHBfl^ 
ir.    In  sight  of  picturesque  North  Shore  all  the  way.        \Jf  ^ 

DOCKS  CLARK  STREET  BRIDGE.       PHONE  FRANKLIN  814. 

MUSIC  AND  DANCING  FREE  ON  ALL  TRIPS 


.25 

ROUND 
.  TRIP 


Nijht  Best         p.  m,  (Jaily,  eneept 
vSaturdaf  and  Sunday.    Two  Beat*  ^  * 
Salurday        <D  |    r>  ONE- 
10:30  p.  m.    M>*»^0  WAT, 


.75 

ROUND 
,  TRIP 


50c 


The  Type  is  Bad — Capitals  are  Hard  to  Eead 


HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


How  Bright  and  Cheerful 
the  Old  Home  Looks  Now 

ELECTRIC  LIGHT  will  transform  your 
home  into  the  most  pleasant  place  imaginable. 
Its  cheerful,  congenial  brilliance  will  delight  every 
member  of  the  family. 

The  soft,  mellow  illumination  of  Electric  Light  is  very 
restful  to  tired  eyes  —  fine  for  reading  or  sewing  at 
night.  Clean,  safe,  healthful  — Electric  Light  should 
be  in  every  modern  home. 

Have  Your  Home  Wired  Now 
—2  Years  to  Pay 

The  tertiary  rate  for  Electric  Light  was  reduced  on 
March  1st,  from  4c  to  3c  net  per  kilowatt-hour.  Thus,  it  is 
now  not  only  more  economical  than  ever  to  use  Electric  Light, 
but  also  to  wash,  sew,  iron  or  cook  by  electricity. 

If  your  home  is  not  wired,  inquire  about  our  con- 
venient 2-years-to-pay,  housewiring  plan.  Write 
today;  or,  'phone  Randolph  1280 — Contract  Dept. 

Commonwealth  Edison  Company 

120  West  Adams  Street 

or  Any  Member  of  the  Chicago  Electrical  Contractors 
Association  or  Faraday   Electrical  Association. 


Allurement  in  a  Coarsely  Drawn  Newspaper  Picture 
W.  D.  McJunkin 


NEWSPAPER  ADVERTISING 


One  of  W.  D.  McJunkin's  Good  Newspaper 
Advertisements.    The  Picture  is  Effec- 
tive, Though  Open  and  Coarse 


312  HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Liberal  stop-overs  permitted  at  all  interesting  points  en  route,  including 
Battle  Creek,  Detroit,  Niagara  Falls,  Buffalo,  Rochester,  Syracuse, 
Utica*  Schenectady,  Albany,  Pittsfield  and  Springfield,  Mass. 


Sixty-day  drcuit  tours  may  also  be  arranged  to  New  York  and 
Boston,  including  lake  and  river  routes,  and  more  extended 
circuit  tours,  partly  by  ocean,  including  meals  and  berths 
on  ocean  steamers,  at  reduced  summer  fares^ 


Michigan  Central  R.  R. — "The  Niagara  Falls  Route" 


CHICAGO  TICKET  OFFICES 

228  South  Clark  Street 

Phones:  Wabash  4200;  Auto.  589-634 
12th  Street  Station 
Phone:  Wabash  4200 


A  Suggestive  Newspaper  Advertisement 


NEWSPAPER  ADVERTISING 


313 


WANAMAKER-3 


^WANAMAKER'9 


WANAMAKER'3 


More  About  the  Great,  Coming  Fashion  Show  :  More  About  Spring  Activities 


Some  Men  Playing  Yesterday 

a  flute— taught  me  this  lesson,  that  I  must  not 
only  blow,  but  use  my  fingers. 

I  pasi  this  on  for  what  it  is  worth. 

It  is  often  said  that  any  business  can  be  built 
up  on  advertising,  which  certain  people  who  use 
slang  call  "blowing." 

The  writer  believes  that  this  is  not  true. 

Permanently  successful  business  is  not  pos- 
sible by  mere  word  of  mouth  as  expressed  in 
much  advertising.  . 

,  It  takes  ten  times  as  many  fingers  as  it  does 
mouths  and  minds. 

A  day  without  a  new  idea  means,  in  this  busi- 
ness, that  somebody  is  asleep. 

Common  sense  is  known  by  the  way  it  shows 
itself.  You  can  see  it  in  the  working  out  of  some- 
body's thinking,  in  finding  the  new  goods  and 
getting  them  in  place,  freshly  and  readily'; 
whether  it  snows  or  blows. 

Fashion  is  a  date  as  well  as  a  season. 


(S.J. 


New  Sports  Hats  in  the 
Millinery  Salons 


Eighty-Five  Styles  of  Women's 
Suits  Between  $16.50  and  $50 


Brand  New  Are  500  Young 
Women's  Suits  at  $13.75 
to  $25 


Women's  Silk  Poplin  and' 
Moire  Coats 

Tin  styles  at  $20— <)iie  of  popUn  ratde  with  •  high  vri 


re  In  blade;  the  last  may  be  had  In  tan 


Black-and-white 

A  Special  Fashion  Showing- 


Now  Is  the  Time  to  Speak  of 
Awnings  and  Slip  Covers 


"Trot-Moc"  Slioes  a  Third 
Less  Means  Good  Fortune 


The  Paris  Fashions 


and  Milliners  of  Pari 


In  Egyptian  Hall, 
Beginning  Thursday 


Callof  8  Advance  Summer  Models 


Callot  Now  Making  Wide  Skirts 


Exclusive  Models  From  Doucet 


This 
Morning's 
Notes 


Mask  and  Wig 
"Paradise  Prison" 


New  Filet  and 
Cutwork  Bedspreads 


Silk  Special 


Lace  Specials 


The  Correctly 
Dressed  Maid 


Silk  Petticoat 
Specials 


Uousecleaning  Tips 

From  the 
Housewares  Store 


1® 


Now  Is  the  Spring 
Time  for  Men 


Another  1200  of  those  wonderfully 
liked  silky  mercerized  shirts — special 
at  $1.15.         rw.  ..H.-. 


New  English  Top-Coats  for 
April  and  May 


Special  Note  to  Golfers 


"Stonecrfete"  Furniture  for 
Porch,  Lawn  or  Garden 


Specially  Priced  Cut  Glass  in 
Time  for  Easter  Weddings 


s)  anit  the  blanks  thematlvw 


The  Lower-Price  Store  on 
the  Subway  Floor 


Plenty  of  Spring  coats  at  »5  to  J25— coaU 
t  dclfghtfun™'i«w*at>lM*thaf  womm 


Wanamaker  has  Always  Clung  to  the  Daily  News  Style.    This  is  a  News- 
paper Page  Keduced 


314  HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Women's  Coats  and  Capes  Showing  the  Sea- 
son's Most  Preferred  Styles  and  Colors. 

Tod»T'»  displays.  tspcciiUy  •!  modtralt  ,  iccs.  will  be  tfto 
,mor.  worlhy  of  attention  than  th.y  were  dunnj  Ef  position  Week. 
Our  determination  to  meet  the  seasons  increasu^  demands  for 


Tailored  Two  and  Three  Piece  Suits :  The 
Season's  Most  Distinctive  New  Designs. 


Untrimmed  Hats  in  Many  of  the  Season's  Latest 
and  Best  Shapes  at  Great  Savings. 


new  Hats  placed  on  sale  I 


le  bet{hlli  o(  populi 


Imported  White  Seersucker,  Yd.,  15c  | ; 


i-5pecial,»»«. 


Women's  Sample  Handkerchief  Sale 

rett*no«'ti.?^nrsupu\'loela"pn"s1har.« 


A  Notably  Successful  Semi-Annual  Event: 

Hosiery  Box  Sale  Including  Our  En- 
tire Staple  Lines  in  Black. 


Sanknitary  Bath  and  Face  Towels 

The  feature  of  these  new  toweU  to  which  they  owe  their 
ipidly  inirreasinf  populanty    is    that    they  are   knitted — not 


Accessories  for  the  Bath  Roont 

prospects 


Exclusive  Novelties  in  Women's  Fine 
^Knitted  Coats  and  Sweaters. 


Women's  Combination  Undermuslins 
at  Attractive  Prices. 


Halloween  Favors  ih  the  Toy  Section 

Unique  novelties  that  will  add  greaUy  to  the  merriment 


Pv  Witch.,  .ilk  Ci 


A  Very  Successful  Kid  Glove  Sale. 

SUCH  THE  DAILY  SALE$  PROVE 
THIS  SEMI-ANNUAL  EVENT  TO  BE 
^  Evtry  condition  in  our  stock  is  such  that  this'  success  is 


Imported  Hand-Embroidered  Covers 
at  Half  fi^egular  Prices. 

These  c%«trr  arv  all  beautifully  hand  embroidered  incolora 
and  are  washable— they  are  rare  values  at  these  pnces— 

Mats,  35c.  75c.  Center  Pieces.  $2,  $2  25:  Table  Squares.  $2; 
Pillow  Covers  and  Scarfs.  $2.  $2  50;  Bags,  $2.  $2  50 

Men's  Fine  Negligee  Shirts,  $1.15. 


Scissors,  Pocket  Knives  and  Mani- 
curing Implements. 

Lines  strongly  featured  in  the  completeness  that  has  la 


Weil-Balanced  Newspaper  Page,  Sparingly  Illustrated,  with  Excellent  Type 


NEWSPAPER  ADVERTISING 


315 


316  HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


CHALMERS  Lets  theBodyBreathe 


Open  (Cool),  Light  (Cool), 
Durable  Summer  Underwear 


REC.  U^S^PAT.  OFF. 
This  Label  on  Every  Garment 


Chalmers  "Porosknit**  Union  Suits 
never  cause  a  *'short-waisted"  feel- 
ing nor  cut  in  the  crotch.  No  flaps 
to  gape  open.  Full  elasticity  up- 
and-down  in  the  seat  —  stretches 
easily  with  every  move. 

The  fabric  is  so  open  you  can  see 
through  it — so  must  be  cooL 


FOR  MEN  Any  Style  FOR  BOYS 
er|^  Shirts  and  Drawers  OC^ 
OvfC       per  garment  £i%J%^ 

FOR  MEN 

n.oo 


per  garment 

FOR  BOYS 
UNION  SUITS  CA^ 
Any  Style  OUC 


CHALMERS  KNITTING  CO. 
Amsterdam,  N.  Y« 


Ask  Toar  Dealer 


CHALMERS  Lets  theBodyBreathe 


There  are  a  Good  Many  Different  Things  in  this  Advertisement,  Excel- 
lently Balanced  and  Harmonized 


NEWSPAPEE  ADVERTISING 


317 


$45.00  Each  Year 

if  placed  in  the  Savings  Bank  at  4  per  cent  interest  will  amount  to  $355  in  seven  years, 
enough  to  buy  a  house-lot  in  the  suburbs,  a  good  start  toward  fulfilling  the  ambition  of 
every  housewife:  OWNING  YOUR  OWN  HOME. 

A  Demonstration  in  Percentages: 


BEANS: 

Pea,  per  quart   .09 

Yellow  Eye,  per  quart  09 

Red  Kidney,  per  quart  10 

California,  per  quart.  .  10 

Limas,  per  pound  08 


.01 
.01 
.02 
.01 
.02 


A  Saving  of  13  Per  Cent 

Our  stock  of  the  best  quality  obtainable  ;  all  hand 
picked  and  screened. 

QUAKER  OATS: 

Small  package  09  .12  .03 

Family  size  package  25  .28  .03 

In  bulk,  2  pounds.  09  .10  .01 

A  Saving  of  14  Per  Cent 

The  name  Quaker  guarantees  the  quality. 

Jello,  package  08    .10  .02 

Lemon  Extract,  bottle  08    .10  .02 

Foss'  Lemon  Extract,  bottle  17    .20  .03 

A  Saving  of  17  Per  Cent 

Average  Saving,  14  Per  Cent 

The  money  you  save  in  trading  here,  if  properly  cared  for,  will  carry  you  through 
quite  a  spell  of  adversity,  whether  sickness  or  hard  times,  and  when  things  right  them- 
selves you  will  not  have  a  big  grocery  bill  hanging  over  your  head. 

Charity  is  NOT  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  business.  The  cash  and 
credit  roads  to  success  are  both  marked  *'  make  money,"  the  question  of  the  hour  is: 
Which  is  the  better  way?  ^^^^^^^^^^ 

Boston  Branch  Grocery 


TEA  AND  COFFEE:     |  ^  | 

Our  best  cofTee,  pound  29  .  35  .06 

Boston  Blend  Coffee,  pound  22  .25  .03 

Fancy  Formosa  Tea,  pound  50  .60  .10 

Choice  Formosa  Tea,  pound  40  .50  .10 

A  Saving  of  18  Per  Cent 

Our  ever-increasing  sales  on  these  goods  attest 
their  worth. 

VAN  CAMP'S  GOODS: 

Milk,  can  10  .11  ,01 

Red  Kidney  Beans,  can  ,  09  .10  .01 

1  pound  Baked  Beans,  can  09  .10  .01 

3  pounds  Baked  Beans,  can  18  .20  .02 

A  Saving  of  10  Per  Cent 

Van  Camp's  products  meet  the  approval  of  all  the 
best  families.    The  Baked  Beans  are  especially  good. 

Naptha  Soap,  2  bars  09  .10  .01 

(P.  &  G.  or  Fels.) 

Babbitt's  Soap,  2  bars  08  .10 

Sawyer's  Blueing,  bottle  04  .05 

Ammonia,  bottle  08  .10 

A  Saving  of  14  Per  Cent 


.02 
.01 
.02 


J    101  HIGH  STREET 


Until  further  notice  this  store  will  close  Thursday  evenings  at  6.30  o'clock. 
Open  Wednesday  and  Saturday  evenings  until  10  o'clock. 


^•^^^^^^vl^^-^I^I^^I^S  ^^^^ 


Showing  What  May  be  Done  by  a  Small  Country  Paper 


STREET-CAR  ADVERTISING  319 


The  Car-Card  and  Poster  are  for  Those  Who  Idly  Glance — They 
Must  be  Suggestive 


320 


HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Join  the  Army  of  Mothers 

who  have  learned  how  to  Keep  their  boys*  and 
girls*  school-reports  up  near  the  100%  mark, 
by  providing  them  with  that  clean  reflex  of 
the  world's  important  news  —  the  subjects 
that  develop  mental  growth  and  character — 

The  literdiy  Digest 

WEEKLY— 10  CENTS       ^0^^^^^  (Public  Opinion/Combined)  NEWS-STANDS 
FUNK  &  WACNALLS  COMPANY.  NEW  YORK  and  LONDON  Publishers  of  the  Famous  New  Standard  Dictionary 


ALL  HUMAN  KNOWLEDGE 

SINCE  THE  WORLD  BEGAN  IS  CONCENTRATED  IN 


THE  FVNK  6-WAGNALLS 

NEW  STANDARD  DICTIONARY 

Funk  At  Wagnalls  Company,  New  York,  also  publish  The  Literary  Digest 


Fine,  rich  and  pure:  delights  the  taste: 
The  food  for  leisure  or  for  haste. 


Renewsyourhealtli.repairs  the  waste. 


Just  add  hoi  water  and  serve. 


Solid  Arguments  Can  be  Made  Briefly  for  Car-Card  and  Poster  Display 


ART  OF  ADVEETISING  DISPLAY  321 


Advertising  Assignment  II 

Classify  the  advertisements  in  the  preceding  pages  as 
belonging  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  three  types  of  copy 
— the  memory  type,  the  argumentative  type,  the  mail- 
order or  complete  sales  type. 

Take  the  seven  principles  of  display  summarized  on 
page  281  and  make  an  analysis  of  the  extent  to  which 
each  principle  is  used  in  each  of  the  illustrative  adver- 
tisements, or  note  weakness  on  any  point. 

Then  collect  from  newspapers  and  magazines  parallel 
examples  of  each  of  the  types  of  advertising  here  illus- 
trated, together  with  illustrations  of  the  violation  of 
principles,  writing  out  your  criticisms  briefly  as  the 
author  of  this  book  has  done  in  the  lines  under  the 
advertisements  here  printed. 

Mediums 

A  magazine  or  newspaper  used  for  advertising  is 
called  a  medium. 

The  effectiveness  of  an  advertisement  depends  to  a 
surprizing  degree  on  the  character  of  the  periodical  in 
which  it  appears.  The  preparation  of  the  mind  of  the 
reader  which  is  given  by  the  editorial  pages  is  psycho- 
logically immensely  important.  In  the  course  of  a  num- 
ber of  years  a  certain  newspaper  or  magazine  will  have 
cultivated  certain  habits  in  its  readers,  and  of  course 
these  habits  carry  over  into  the  advertising.  Some  news- 
papers have  built  up  the  habit  of  reading  classified  ad- 
vertisements, and  we  know  how  immensely  profitable 
that  habit  is  to  the  newspaper  in  its  classified  adver- 
tising department.  Other  papers  with  equal  or  greater 
circulation  will  give  practically  no  results  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  the  habit  on  the  part  of  readers  of 


322        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


looking  for  these  advertisements  has  not  been  formed. 
Equally  strong  is  the  habit  of  giving  confidence  to  what 
is  said  in  the  editorial  pages,  and  this  habit  of  confidence 
passes  over  into  the  advertisements  and  makes  them 
yield  business  that  would  not  come  at  all  from  some 
other  periodical  of  equal  or  greater  circulation. 

The  character  of  the  editorial  matter  has  also  selected 
particular  types  of  persons.  One  periodical  has  selected 
from  the  great  masses  the  people  who  send  orders  by 
mail,  and  such  a  periodical  is  well  suited  to  mail-order 
advertising;  another  periodical  may  have  just  as  good 
a  class  of  people,  but  perhaps  people  who  have  not 
formed  the  habit  of  mail-order  buying,  and  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  devise  an  advertisement  that  will  make 
them  buy.  Some  periodicals  are  read  by  the  well-to-do 
and  are  good  mediums  in  which  to  advertise  automobiles, 
jewels,  hand-made  furniture,  etc.  Others  are  read  by 
the  business  classes  and  are  good  mediums  in  which  to 
advertise  office  and  store  appliances  or  business  devices. 
Still  others  are  read  by  the  professional  classes. 

Among  national  periodicals  there  are  the  general  mag- 
azines like  Harper's,  The  Century,  and  Scribner's, 
Munsey's,  McClure's,  and  The  American;  there  are  the 
national  weeklies  like  the  Saturday  Evening  Post,  CoU 
lier's  and  The  Literary  Digest  (which  is  particularly 
strong  among  business  and  professional  men  and 
women)  ;  there  are  the  women's  magazines  like  the 
Ladies'  Home  Journal  and  the  Delineator;  there  are  the 
farm  papers,  either  weekly  or  monthly,  the  religious 
press,  and  the  trade-papers.  The  trade-papers  go  largely 
to  dealers  and  are  useful  mediums  for  wholesalers  who 
could  not  possibly  use  general  magazines. 

The  newspaper  directories  publish  the  sworn  or  esti- 
mated circulation  of  each  of  these.  The  cost  of  the 
advertising  should  be  about  a  dollar  a  thousand  of  the 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  323 


circulation  for  a  page ;  that  is,  a  page  in  a  magazine  with 
250,000  circulation  would  be  about  $250,  or  with  600,000 
circulation,  $600.  But  quality  counts  just  as  much  as 
numbers,  and  it  often  pays  to  disregard  numbers  en- 
tirely. Among  newspapers,  the  quality  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  Boston  Transcript  is  so  high  that  some  kinds 
of  goods  could  be  advertised  more  profitably  in  that  than 
in  one  of  the  other  Boston  daily  papers  with  twenty 
times  as  great  a  circulation. 

Lying  about  circulations  has  been  an  almost  national 
sin,  and  the  precise  advertising  value  of  one  newspaper 
or  magazine  and  another  has  been  so  difficult  a  matter 
to  determine  that  it  has  become  the  custom  to  consult 
special  experts  on  mediums,  usually  the  advertising 
agencies.  No  wise  business  man  would  enter  an  adver- 
tising campaign  without  the  most  thorough  investigation 
of  the  mediums  he  will  use,  the  pulling  power  of  each,  the 
precise  relation  between  circulation  and  cost  of  each, 
and  the  general  editorial  character  and  policy  of  each, 
as  well  as  the  particular  habits  cultivated  in  the  readers. 

Questions  on  Mediums 

1.  What  are  the  chief  mediums  for  display  advertise- 
ments ? 

2.  In  what  way  is  the  effectiveness  of  an  advertise- 
ment affected  by  the  periodical  in  which  it  appears? 
How  have  successful  classified  advertising  departments 
been  built  up  ? 

3.  In  what  way  does  the  editorial  matter  determine 
the  class  of  readers  which  will  be  drawn  to  a  periodical  ? 

4.  Illustrate  the  different  classes  of  national  period- 
icals. How  is  the  charge  for  advertising  based  on  cir- 
culation? What  effect  does  quality  have  on  the  price 
charged  ? 

5.  Who  are  the  experts  on  mediums,  and  why  is  their 
work  difficult? 


324        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Advertising  Assignment  III 

Select  some  line  of  business  to  which  you  will  give 
special  study  and  plan  briefly  an  advertising  campaign 
for  it  of  a  national  character.  This  may  be  some  gar- 
ment like  union-suits  for  men  or  for  women  (not  both 
together),  furniture,  condensed  milk  or  other  food,  men's 
clothes  or  furnishings.  A  successful  advertiser  in  the 
line  chosen  may  be  found,  as  Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx 
in  men's  clothing.  Being  guided  somewhat  by  the  se- 
lections of  the  known  successful  advertiser,  make  up  a 
list  of  mediums  for  your  business,  and  indicate  about  the 
space  that  would  be  required  as  a  minimum.  Then  in 
class  discussion  see  how  this  space  can  be  cut  down  as 
regards  the  total,  and  if  possible  figure  the  approximate 
cost,  based  on  the  circulation-figures  in  newspaper  direc- 
tories. To  prepare  this  assignment  a  newspaper  direc- 
tory should  be  available  and  a  good  selection  of  period- 
icals, at  least  one  number  of  each,  specially  purchased 
for  this  use. 

The  Cumulative  Power  of  Advertising 

The  best  money  is  made  on  repeat  orders.  In  only 
isolated  cases  will  it  pay  to  make  one  sale  to  a  customer 
and  have  nothing  which  will  take  advantage  of  the  good- 
will which  that  sale  has  produced. 

Advertising  has  for  its  purpose  finding  new  customers. 
If  one  good  new  customer  is  added  each  day,  it  will  be 
seen  that  at  the  end  of  a  year  the  business  will  have  as 
many  customers  as  there  are  days  in  the  year,  at  the  end 
of  two  years  it  will  have  twice  as  many,  and  so  on  until 
it  reaches  its  height  and  exists  for  a  number  of  years 
just  holding  its  own.  At  the  same  time  there  are  always 
some  losses  for  one  reason  or  another,  and  the  places 
of  lost  customers  must  be  filled  by  advertising. 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  325 


In  this  sense,  advertising  has  a  natural  cumulative 
power. 

In  another  way  also  it  has  a  cumulative  power.  If 
you  write  a  letter  to  a  man  and  it  produces  some  im- 
pression on  him,  yet  not  enough  impression  to  make  him 
send  an  order  or  makq  an  inquiry,  still  his  mind  may 
be  in  such  condition  that  the  next  time  you  write  he 
will  respond.  The  System  Magazine  had  at  one  time 
a  list  of  about  30,000  names  accumulated  by  advertising, 
and  each  time  a  new  premium  offer  was  put  out  one,  two, 
or  three  letters  might  be  sent  to  this  list  and  each  letter 
would  get  its  2  to  5  per  cent,  of  subscriptions.  At 
the  end  of  several  years  something  like  fifty  letters  had 
been  sent  out  to  that  list  and  each  letter  had  brought  its 
paying  return.  The  man  who  received  fifty  letters 
before  he  subscribed  had  cost  in  postage  and  stationery 
at  least  the  full  subscription  price  of  the  magazine, 
namely,  $2 ;  but  all  the  letters  up  to  the  fiftieth  had  been 
waste  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  while  the  fiftieth  letter 
saved  at  least  a  part  of  the  waste.  The  waste  was  in- 
evitable, but  through  the  cumulative  power  of  the  adver- 
tising, something  had  been  saved  in  the  end,  and  each 
letter  had  brought  the  percentage  that  paid  for  itself, 
so  there  had  been  no  actual  loss.  By  keeping  on  they 
made  use  of  a  waste  product,  as  in  modern  times  we  do 
in  manufacturing. 

This  cumulation  of  advertising  power  is  so  small,  how- 
ever, that  in  most  cases  it  is  not  safe  to  count  on  it.  It 
may  add  to  the  velvet  of  the  business,  but  it  is  usually 
too  intangible  to  inventory  as  an  asset.  The  accumula- 
tion of  steady  customers,  however,  is  an  asset  that  has 
long  been  accepted  by  auditors  under  the  name  good-will. 

The  cumulative  power  of  single  advertisements  is 
quite  another  matter.  Advertising  solicitors  have  re- 
peated over  and  over  again  that  single  insertions  of  an 


326        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

advertisement  can  not  be  expected  to  pay,  that  you  must 
run  an  advertisement  at  least  three  times  to  know 
whether  it  is  going  to  pull  or  not. 

In  the  case  of  general  publicity,  where  no  direct  re- 
turns were  possible,  this  theory  sounded  plausible  and 
came  to  be  widely  believed.  Indeed,  it  was  almost  a 
gospel  with  advertising  men. 

"When  mail-order  advertising  came  into  the  field,  and 
all  the  returns  were  direct  to  the  office,  it  was  possible 
to  test  out  this  theory  and  see  whether  an  advertisement 
pulled  better  the  second,  third,  fourth,  or  fifth  time  it 
was  run. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Shryer,  in  his  book,  Analytical  Adver- 
tising," gives  hundreds  of  records  in  some  half-dozen 
different  lines  of  business  to  prove  what  all  mail-order 
advertisers  know,  that  the  first  time  a  piece  of  adver- 
tising copy  is  used  it  pulls  more  than  it  ever  pulls  again, 
and  there  is  a  marked  falling  off  in  the  returns  the 
second  time  it  is  used,  and  still  more  the  third  and  fourth 
times.  There  is  a  positive  law  of  decreasing  returns. 
A  fresh  piece  of  copy,  which  gives  a  new  turn  to  the 
argument,  may  pull  as  well  or  even  better  than  the  first, 
and  for  a  certain  length  of  time  steady  returns  may  be 
counted  on ;  but  after  that  the  cost  of  the  advertising  is 
likely  to  rise  above  the  margin  of  profit,  and  some  new 
product  or  combination  must  be  sought. 

Mr.  Shryer  writes : 

*^By  means  of  accurate  records,  without  which  few 
advertisers  have  any  excuse  for  being,  I  succeeded  in 
deducing  the  following  laws  for  my  own  business  (a 
correspondence  course  on  collections)  : 

^ '  The  first  insertion  of  a  tried  piece  of  copy  in  a  new 
medium  will  pay  better,  in  every  way,  than  any  sub- 
sequent insertion  of  the  same  copy  in  the  same  magazine. 

''The  reappearance  of  the  same  piece  of  copy  in  the 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  327 


same  magazine  will  pay  less  in  direct  proportion  to 
the  number  of  times  it  runs  consecutively. 

*'By  inserting  a  certain  piece  of  copy  in  a  certain 
magazine  and  skipping  every  subsequent  issue  until  the 
first  (or  any  insertion)  pays  out,  it  is  possible  to  use 
certain  publications  that  would  mean  almost  dead  loss 
if  used  consecutively. 

^'Changing  copy  and  running  consecutively  will  not 
prove  any  more  profitable  than  running  the  same  copy 
consecutively,  if  each  change  is  equally  strong  copy. 

^^The  first  piece  of  copy  in  any  publication  will,  per 
dollar  spent,  produce  more  business  than  any  other 
piece  of  copy  ever  run  in  that  publication. 

^'The  longer  any  copy  runs  in  any  publication  the 
more  it  costs  to  run  it  and  the  less  results  it  pulls. ' ' 

This  means  that  the  first  time  you  advertise  any 
special  new  offering  you  skim  the  cream — ^you  catch  the 
readers  who  are  waiting  and  looking  for  that  thing. 

Then,  if  you  want  your  advertising  to  pay,  you 
should  not  run  it  in  every  number,  but  wait  until  a  new 
rising  of  cream  has  accumulated. 

To  demonstrate  this,  he  gives  the  figures  of  a  cam- 
paign for  subscriptions  to  a  magazine,  summarized  as 
follows : 

^^The  average  cost  per  subscriber  for  the  entire  cam- 
paign is  $1.10 ;  $3,147.94  in  advertising  resulted  in  2,855 
subscribers  at  $1  each. 

''The  average  cost  per  subscriber  from  the  first  in- 
sertion of  these  advertisements  is  85  cents.  This  in- 
cludes a  count  of  the  publications  used  only  once.  The 
total  amount  spent  in  one-time  insertions  of  those  used 
more  than  once  was  $1,870.19,  which  resulted  in  2,196 
subscribers.  (Those  used  only  once  proved  not  good 
mediums,  costing  far  more  than  the  average.) 

''The  average  per  subscriber  on  the  subsequent  in- 


328        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


sertions  is  $1.91.  'Cumulative  value'  raised  the  cost 
from  85  cents  to  $1.91. 

''The  magic  third  insertion  was  tried  but  twice.  In 
the  first  case  it  raised  the  average  cost  in  that  medium 
from  35  cents  to  $3.60,  over  ten  times  the  cost.  On  the 
second  it  raised  the  average  cost  from  52  cents  to  $24.75, 
an  increase  of  over  47  times.  Old  Cumulative  Value 
was  evidently  asleep  at  the  switch." 

Mr.  Shryer  continues  to  demonstrate  his  conclusions 
with  a  complete  set  of  records  of  his  own  business,  that 
of  the  American  Collection  Service,  running  over  several 
years,  the  complete  records  of  Professor  Beery 's  School 
of  Horsemanship,  the  records  of  a  tireless  and  electric 
cooker  business,  the  records  of  a  patented  machine  for 
household  use  that  was  sold  to  women,  the  records  of 
an  offer  of  a  combination  of  merchandise  selling  for 
slightly  less  than  $30,  taking  the  two-inch  copy  only,  the 
records  of  a  school  of  cartooning,  and  the  record  of  the 
advertising  of  the  City  of  Des  Moines.  All  of  these 
records  show  a  consistent  lessening  of  the  pulling  power 
of  advertisements,  with  only  here  and  there  an  exception 
which  might  well  be  due  to  position  in  the  magazine, 
the  special  interest  of  some  particular  article,  the  season 
of  the  year,  or  the  like. 

The  conclusion  is  that  in  general  publicity,  on  which 
hitherto  test-records  have  not  been  available,  there  is 
an  enormous  waste  even  when,  on  the  whole,  there  is  a 
profit.  As  competition  becomes  closer  and  keener,  more 
and  more  scientific  methods  of  advertising  must  be  em- 
ployed if  w^e  wish  to  make  fortunes  through  advertising. 

Questions  on  the  Cumulative  Power  of  Advertising 

In  what  way  is  all  advertising  cumulative?  Is  the 
effect  of  any  given  advertisement  cumulative?  Discuss 
Mr.  Shryer 's  views  and  figures  on  the  cumulative  power 


ART  OF  ADVERTISING  DISPLAY  329 


of  advertising,  and  what  you  should  do  to  get  the  maxi- 
mum results  in  advertising. 

How  can  the  waste  of  general  advertising  be  removed  ? 

It  will  be  well  if  the  teacher  can  read  from  Mr. 
Shryer's  book,  Analytical  Advertising,"  and  lead  the 
class  into  a  very  careful  discussion  as  to  what  is  the 
real  and  natural  cumulative  power  in  advertising,  and 
what  is  the  false  cumulative  power.  It  is  as  important 
not  to  overlook  the  real  as  to  beware  of  the  false. 


IV 


RETAIL  ADVERTISING 

General  advertising  is  possible  only  when  there  is 
general  distribution,  and  the  number  of  business  firms 
that  have  national  distribution  among  dealers  or  agen- 
cies is  only  a  few  hundred  or  thousand  at  the  most. 
Even  many  of  these  do  not  engage  in  advertising.  There 
remains  to  the  national  magazines  only  mail-order  ad- 
vertising, in  which  even  very  small  concerns  may  engage 
if  they  can  make  a  success  of  it.  Very  few  seem  to  find 
the  way  to  success,  however. 

By  far  the  greater  part  of  business  firms  are  retail 
dealers,  and  retail  advertising  comes  nearer  to  being 
universal  than  any  other,  tho  the  big  appropriations  are 
made  for  general  advertising.  Because  the  individual 
amounts  spent  on  retail  advertising  are  small,  there  has 
been  no  such  pressure  to  study  and  perfect  the  art  of 
retail  advertising  as  there  has  been  to  study  the  art  of 
general  advertising  on  which  millions  are  spent  in  single 
accounts.  Yet  the  total  is  great  because  the  number  of 
small  retail  advertisers  is  so  great,  and  manufacturers 
are  realizing  that  they  must  make  a  business  of  teach- 
ing dealers  to  back  up  with  skill  and  art  in  their  retail 
advertising  the  general  advertising  for  which  these 
manufacturers  are  paying  themselves.  More  and  more 
general  advertising  is  pushed  out  through  retail  channels, 
so  that  it  will  be  concentrated  just  where  it  is  needed 
instead  of  being  scattered  promiscuously  over  the 
country,  and  manufacturers  are  studying  retail  adver- 
tising so  that  they  may  help  their  dealers. 

330 


RETAIL  ADVERTISING  331 


The  Object  of  Retail  Advertising 

The  chief  object  of  retail  advertising  is  to  bring  cus- 
tomers to  the  store.  If  people  come  to  the  store  they 
are  likely  to  buy.  The  profit  on  the  goods  advertised 
is  a  minor  consideration.  When  people  see  other  goods 
well  displayed  and  attractive,  they  buy  them.  Almost 
without  exception  the  profit  from  retail  advertising  lies 
in  the  purchases  of  other  goods.  Besides,  strangers  who 
come  once  become  familiar  with  the  store  and  come 
again,  thus  developing  into  regular  customers  who  are 
the  standby  of  every  business.  If  a  store  does  not  carry 
attractive  goods  well  displayed  on  counters  and  in  win- 
dows, advertising  is  not  likely  to  prove  profitable. 

The  easiest  means  of  attracting  customers  to  a  store  is 
by  advertising  bargains,  and  the  simplest  form  of  bar- 
gain is  the  cut  price — $25  suits  for  $15.  The  tempta- 
tion to  stretch  the  gap  between  the  two  prices  has 
naturally  led  to  almost  universal  lying,  against  which 
honest  advertisers  are  now  waging  a  strong  campaign. 

The  next  most  popular  method  of  attracting  troops 
of  customers  has  been  sales  of  various  kinds — fire  sales, 
bankruptcy  sales,  going-out-of-business  sales,  seasonal 
sales,  and  sales  on  special  lines  of  goods. 

These  special  sales  have  likewise  been  much  abused. 
One  man  in  Connecticut  is  said  to  have  had  a  big  red 
sign  over  his  shoe-store  front,  ^ '  Selling  out  at  Cost, ' '  for 
a  period  of  three  years,  and  he  was  one  of  the  best  regu- 
lar customers  of  a  certain  wholesale  house.  The  sign 
was  a  lie  pure  and  simple. 

Real  profit  lies  far  more  in  holding  regular  customers 
than  in  attracting  swarms  of  curiosity-seekers  who  go 
to  a  store  on  the  strength  of  advertising  only  to  find  they 
have  been  deceived.  Almost  without  exception  the  fake 
advertisers  go  into  bankruptcy  sooner  or  later.    It  costs 


332        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


too  much  to  get  a  possible  customer  to  go  to  a  store  once 
to  make  it  pay  to  advertise  in  most  cases;  but  when  a 
large  percentage  of  those  who  go  can  be  held  and  in- 
duced to  come  again  because  they  like  the  goods  and 
like  the  store,  the  entire  profit  on  two  or  three  sales  can 
be  expended  on  advertising,  with  a  view  to  getting  the 
steady  business  of  the  customers  for  years  to  come. 

High-grade  stores  advertise  extensively  fall  and  spring 
'^openings,"  when  they  show  the  new  fashions,  and 
without  announcing  any  prices  whatever  draw  huge 
crowds  of  those  who  wish  to  see  what  the  new  fashions 
are. 

There  are  also  special  sales  of  such  goods  as  linens, 
underwear,  household  furnishings,  etc.,  which  attract 
because  of  the  larger  display  and  greater  selection. 
Special  purchases  are  made  for  these  sales,  and  while 
the  prices  are  not  particularly  reduced,  the  choice  of 
goods  makes  the  sales  eminently  useful  to  customers. 

Old  customers  as  well  as  new  need  to  be  reminded  of 
the  special  kinds  and  qualities  of  goods  a  store  carries. 
Every  day  there  is  store  news"  which  all  customers  are 
curious  to  know.  John  "Wanamaker,  the  first  great  re- 
tail advertiser,  adopted  this  idea  of  store  news  as  the 
key  to  his-advertising,  and  with  high-grade  stores  especi- 
ally the  constant  announcement  of  curious  or  interest- 
ing facts  about  the  goods  that  are  continually  coming  in 
causes  thousands  of  customers  to  read  the  da,ily  or  weekly 
announcements  just  as  they  read  the  news  in  the  news- 
papers. Those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  reading  the  news 
in  newspapers  naturally  carry  the  habit  over  into  the 
advertising  columns  and  read  with  interest  the  regular 
news  about  bargains,  sales,  new  goods  received,  etc.  If 
there  is  novelty  or  interest  in  the  goods  themselves, 
prices  need  not  be  advertised  at  all,  or  regular  prices 
may  be  mentioned. 


EETAIL  ADVERTISING  333 


Newspapers  and  Handbills  as  Retail  Mediums 

Newspapers,  with  their  second-class  mail  privileges 
and  cheap  methods  of  printing,  can  distribute  business 
announcements  for  far  less  money  than  this  can  be  done 
in  any  direct  way.  A  whole  newspaper  page  can  be  sent 
out  for  from  $1  to  $2  a  thousand  copies  when  the  circu- 
lations are  large,  while  the  lowest  possible  cost  of  house 
to  house  distribution  of  handbills  is  about  the  same, 
and  the  cost  of  printing  is  extra.  In  addition  to  that, 
the  advertising  gains  force  by  its  association  with  the 
news,  and  most  of  all  from  the  habit  of  the  newspaper 
readers  of  reading  the  advertisements.  This  habit  of  read- 
ing advertisements  has  cost  the  newspapers  thousands  of 
dollars  to  create.  The  French  papers  have  never  created 
this  habit  on  the  part  of  their  readers,  and  so  French 
dealers  still  send  out  direct.  The  best  medium  for  retail 
advertising,  when  it  exists,  is  the  newspaper;  and  be- 
tween newspapers,  that  paper  is  best  whose  readers  have 
been  trained  in  the  habit  of  reading  advertisements. 

But  often  there  is  no  newspaper  which  has  a  circu- 
lation among  precisely  the  people  who  ought  to  be  the 
customers  of  a  store.  A  small  store  on  the  south  side 
of  Chicago  doing  business  with  the  people  within  a 
radius  of  a  few  blocks  could  not  afford  to  advertise  in  a 
regular  Chicago  daily  which  circulates  over  the  entire 
city,  because  it  would  be  necessary  to  pay  for  an  enor- 
mous waste  circulation.  Likewise  in  country  towns 
there  may  be  scattered  circulation  of  several  newspapers, 
no  one  or  two  papers  covering  the  district  evenly.  In 
such  cases,  which  are  comparatively  few,  handbills  pre- 
pared just  like  newspaper  display  advertisements  should 
be  distributed  from  house  to  house  by  carriers. 

There  is  also  a  decided  difference,  often,  between 
morning  and  evening  newspapers.    Evening  newspapers 


334        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


are  received  in  the  home  before  supper  when  the  whole 
family  together  has  time  to  read  them,  and  they  have 
proved  excellent  mediums  for  advertising  family  supplies 
of  any  kind.  Morning  newspapers  are  larger  and 
stronger  as  a  rule,  with  more  good  news,  and  are  more 
likely  to  be  read  by  men  on  their  way  to  their  businesses 
and  by  the  more  thoughtful  and  discriminating  part  of 
the  community.  Their  Sunday  editions  find  people  with 
the  greatest  leisure  of  the  week,  and  the  combination  of 
reading  leisure  on  the  part  of  the  people  with  strong 
news  interest  has  made  the  Sunday  papers,  as  a  rule,  the 
most  generally  effective  retail  advertising  mediums,  while 
evening  papers  come  next,  and  weekday  morning  papers 
last,  except  for  special  kinds  of  advertising. 

What  to  Advertise 

Since  the  object  of  retail  advertising  is  to  attract 
people  to  a  store,  the  goods  to  advertise  are  such  as  they 
will  make  most  effort  to  go  and  get.  In  general,  they 
want  staple  goods  such  as  sugar,  flour,  etc.  But  there 
is  very  little  profit  in  these,  and  even  when  they  are 
sold  at  cost  but  a  trifling  reduction  in  price  can  be 
advertised.  It  is,  therefore,  imperative  to  find  goods  in 
less  universal  demand  which  can  be  described  in  such 
a  way  that  they  will  appear  interesting.  The  more 
margin  of  profit  there  is  in  the  goods  the  more  attractive 
can  the  bargain-prices  be  made.  Yet  it  usually  does 
not  pay  to  advertise  out-of-date  styles  and  shopworn 
goods  which  the  shopkeeper  wants  to  get  rid  of  at  any 
price.    People  want  quality. 

There  is  just  one  solution  of  the  difficulty,  and  that 
is  to  select  the  freshest  and  best  goods,  the  goods  the 
people  want  most,  and  describe  them  so  attractively  that 
they  will  wish  to  see  them.  Mere  prices  mean  nothing 
except  when  they  are  attached  to  the  very  cheapest 


EETAIL  ADVERTISING  335 


goods  offered  anywhere  in  the  market.  A  reduction  of 
prices  of  medium  or  higher  qualities  means  nothing  what- 
ever unless  there  is  sufficient  description  of  the  quality 
of  the  goods  to  make  the  prices  seem  really  attractive. 
A  skilled  retail  advertisement-writer  is  one  who  can 
describe  good  qualities  so  that  people  will  be  willing  to 
pay  good  prices  for  them.  A  combination  of  reduced 
prices  and  good  descriptions  will  probably  produce  the 
best  results ;  but  very  skilful  advertisement-writers  may 
make  their  descriptions  so  good  that  people  will  come 
for  the  goods  at  regular  prices.  Goods  of  high  quality 
which  competitors  do  not  carry  are  particularly  avail- 
able for  such  high-grade  advertisement-writing. 

The  Buyer  and  the  Advertisement- Writer  Must  Work 
Together 

Successful  retail  advertising  depends  on  knowing 
what  the  people  want,  and  then  telling  them  about  it 
in  an  attractive  way.  The  expert  on  what  people  want 
and  on  margins  of  profit  is  the  buyer,  while  the  adver- 
tisement-writer is  the  expert  on  writing  descriptions. 
No  advertisement-writer  can  make  a  real  success  unless 
he  works  in  close  association  with  a  good  buyer.  In 
addition,  he  must  go  down  on  the  floor  and  talk  with 
the  sales-people  or  watch  the  customers  when  they  come 
in,  to  see  how  these  customers  act,  what  they  say,  and 
the  lines  along  which  their  minds  work.  Thus  the 
advertising  man  becomes  a  sort  of  assistant  buyer  him- 
self, getting  information  at  first  hand  which  the  buyer 
ought  to  have  and  will  welcome. 

The  Technique  of  Retail  Advertising 

Most  retail  advertisements  are  displayed  catalogs  of 
many  different  items,  and  so  the  technique  is  entirely 
different  from  that  in  which  single  items  are  advertised. 


336        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


In  a  full-page  advertisement  often  hundreds  of  items 
are  advertised.  If  they  were  placed  unclassified  in  ,  solid 
column  after  column,  people  would  pay  little  attention 
to  them.  Eetail  advertisements  must  be  displayed  on 
much  the  same  principle  that  news  is  displayed,  by  means 
of  headlines,  but  with  this  difference — nearly  all  people 
are  most  interested  in  the  big  news  of  the  day,  while 
in  reading  advertisements  one  person  is  looking  for  one 
thing  and  another  is  looking  for  another,  and  the  chief 
thing  is  to  make  it  possible  for  any  person  to  glance 
rapidly  over  the  whole  advertisement  and  find  what  he 
wants  in  the  shortest  possible  space  of  time.  The  highly 
developed  technique  of  advertisements  is  such  that  a 
given  item  can  be  found  in  a  good  advertisement  in  a 
fraction  of  the  time  that  a  given  item  could  be  found 
in  the  news-columns. 

First y  each  advertisement  as  a  whole  should  have  some 
distinctive  mark  that  serves  the  purpose  of  a  trade- 
mark for  that  particular  store.  In  small  advertisements 
this  may  be  a  characteristic  border ;  in  larger  advertise- 
ments it  may  be  a  characteristic  name-head  at  the  top 
of  the  page,  often  coupled  with  a  distinctive  style  of  type- 
display.  This  enables  people  who  are  regular  customers 
of  that  store  to  look  for  its  advertisements  and  find 
them  easily.  This  is  an  essential  part  of  building  up  a 
clientele  of  regular  customers  who  are  in  the  habit  of 
reading  the  store  news  regularly. 

Second^  all  the  goods  of  each  department  should  be 
carefully  kept  together  in  a  space  clearly  separated 
from  other  department  spaces.  If  only  a  grocery  store, 
or  shoe  store,  or  hardware  store,  or  the  like  is  to  be 
advertised,  usually  a  single  space  is  all  that  is  needed. 
When  a  number  of  these  different  stores  are  united  in  a 
department  store,  each  department  should  be  treated 
like  a  separate  store,  except  that  by  grouping  the  de- 


RETAIL  ADVERTISING  337 


partments  on  one  page,  or  half-page,  or  quarter-page 
they  can  be  made  to  help  each  other,  and  at  the  same 
time  build  up  the  business  and  reputation  of  the  store 
as  a  whole. 

Third,  each  advertisement  for  a  single  store  or  each 
section  of  an  advertisement  for  a  department  store 
should  have  at  the  top  a  display -line  in  large,  bold  type 
(accurately  proportioned,  neither  too  large  nor  too 
small)  which  tells  the  most  important  piece  of  news  in 
that  department,  and  usually  with  it  some  price  in 
equally  large,  bold  figures,  since  price-figures  are  more 
quickly  read  and  usually  more  eagerly  looked  for  than 
descriptive  words.  It  has  become  almost  an  accepted 
rule  that  prices  should  be  given  even  if  they  are  not 
bargain-prices,  since  more  than  anything  else  do  they 
enable  people  to  fix  quickly  the  grade  of  the  articles 
advertised.  A  man  who  knows  he  never  pays  more  than 
$15  for  a  suit  of  clothes  will  not  wish  to  read  about  $25 
or  $30  suits,  nor  will  the  man  who  wears  $25  or  $30 
suits  care  to  waste  his  time  reading  about  $15  suits. 
It  works  both  ways.  The  price  is  the  best  key  to  the 
general  grade  of  goods,  and  therefore  should  be  the  first 
thing  the  eye  catches  in  glancing  over  the  page.  The 
words  of  the  display -line  are  the  next  thing  for  the  eye 
to  catch. 

Fourth,  the  headline  is  usually  so  condensed  it  does 
not  convey  any  real  knowledge,  but  merely  serves  to 
attract  the  reader  to  the  fuller  description  which  is 
given  in  the  opening  lines  of  the  body  of  the  adver- 
tisement, and  therefore  these  opening  lines  should  be 
set  in  the  largest  body-size  of  type  that  is  used.  In  a 
large  advertisement  this  will  usually  be  twelve  point; 
in  a  small  advertisement  it  may  be  ten  point,  or  only 
eight.  These  descriptive  lines  under  the  head  should 
usually  fix  the  quality  of  the  goods  of  which  the  price 


338        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


has  been  so  prominently  displayed  as  to  attract  atten- 
tion. With  the  price  and  the  quality  description,  the 
advertisement  of  that  item  is  complete. 

Fifth,  below  the  item  given  leading  display  it  is  usual 
to  give  a  selection  of  other  items  of  less  importance  so 
that  the  person  who  is  not  interested  in  the  main  item 
may  have  a  second,  third,  fourth,  or  fifth  choice,  as  the 
case  may  be,  or  may  see  something  else  of  a  similar  sort 
which  will  suit  his  needs. 

Sixth,  in  retail  advertising  it  is  exceedingly  impor- 
tant that  the  place  where  the  goods  are  to  be  found  is 
very  clearly  stated.  A  small  advertisement  with  a  dis- 
tinctive border  will  usually  place  the  name  of  the  store 
and  its  location  at  the  bottom  of  the  advertisement  in 
type  only  less  prominent  than  the  main  headline.  De- 
partments in  a  department  store  should  be  located  with 
equal  clearness,  since  often  people  fail  to  find  their  way 
in  an  intricate  department  store  as  they  would  in  a 
city.  It  is  not  enough  that  they  can  ask  some  floor- 
walker, or  that  they  probably*  know  already.  Each  time 
they  should  be  told  on  just  what  floor,  or  in  just  what 
part  of  the  building  they  should  look,  so  they  need  waste 
no  time  asking  questions.  Often  people  are  in  a  great 
hurry,  and  they  will  not  take  time  to  ask  the  way. 
"When  the  place  is  not  given  the  advertisement  may  be 
nearly  a  total  failure. 

Seventh,  the  general  appearance  of  the  advertisement 
should  be  artistically  pleasing.  The  sections  of  a  de- 
partment store  advertisement  should  be  well  balanced 
and  properly  proportioned.  The  shapes  of  the  spaces 
should  have  a  relation  to  the  whole  page  and  to  sur- 
rounding advertisements  or  news-matter.  Only  one 
face  of  display-type  should  commonly  be  used,  in  dif- 
ferent sizes,  and  one  face  of  body-type  in  twelve,  ten, 
and  eight  point,  with  smaller  sizes  only  on  special  occa- 


RETAIL  ADVERTISING 


339 


sions  where  condensation  is,  for  some  particular  reason, 
imperative. 

Pictures  are  extremely  useful  in  retail  advertising, 
but  as  the  retail  advertisement  is  but  for  a  day,  and 
newspaper  printing  practically  requires  pen-and-ink 
drawing  by  a  skilful  artist,  it  is  only  in  the  larger  cities 
that  regular  and  systematic  use  of  pictures  is  practicable. 
In  smaller  towns  cuts  may  be  obtained  often  from 
manufacturers  of  particular  goods;  and  there  are  firms 
that  make  a  business  of  selling  at  low  prices  electro- 
types of  stock  cuts.  Some  wholesale  houses'  make  a 
business  of  furnishing  stock  cuts.  These  makeshift  cuts 
are  often  not  well  suited  to  the  special  advertisement 
either  in  subject,  style,  or  size,  and  in  such  cases  it  is 
better  not  to  use  them,  but  to  depend  on  the  effect  of 
well-arranged  plain  type  with  a  good  border.  These 
may  be  found  even  in  the  smallest  print-shops,  and  can 
always  be  made  effective  by  the  person  who  knows  how. 

Questions  on  Retail  Advertising 

1.  Only  under  what  conditions  is  general  adver- 
tising possible?  About  how  many  firms  can  engage 
successfully  in  general  magazine  advertising? 

2.  How  many  firms,  relatively,  can  engage  in  retail 
advertising?  "What  is  the  advantage  of  doing  general 
advertising  through  retail  channels? 

3.  What  is  the  chief  object  of  retail  advertising? 
Where  does  the  profit  come  in  ? 

4.  What  is  the  easiest  means  of  attracting  customers 
to  a  retail  store  ? 

5.  What  is  the  next  most  attractive  method  of  draw- 
ing customers  to  a  retail  store?  In  what  way  have 
special  sales  been  abused? 

6.  Where  does  real  profit  lie  and  how  is  it  built  up  ? 


340        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


7.  Describe  in  detail  the  advertising  of  high-grade 
retail  stores.    In  what  does  it  consist  for  the  most  part  ? 

8.  What  are  the  mediums  for  retail  advertising? 
What  advantage  does  newspaper  advertising  have? 
Under  what  circumstances  only  can  it  be  used  with 
profit?  What  difference  is  there  between  morning  and 
evening  papers? 

9.  What  things  should  a  retail  store  advertise? 

10.  How  can  quality  and  bargains  be  reconciled? 
What  does  a  skilled  retail  advertising  man  do? 

11.  With  whom  must  a  retail  advertising  man  co- 
operate, and  how  is  this  worked  out? 

12.  Compare  advertisements  and  catalogs.  Compare 
news  and  advertisements. 

13.  What  takes  the  place  of  the  trade-mark  in  retail 
advertising  ? 

14.  How  are  the  different  departments  of  a  store 
handled  in  the  advertising? 

15.  What  are  the  essentials  of  each  department-sec- 
tion of  advertising? 

16.  What  is  the  largest  body-size  of  type,  and  why 
is  it  used  for  the  opening  lines  of  the  body?  What 
relationship  does  this  have  to  the  head -line? 

17.  After  the  leader  has  been  described,  how  are  the 
various  items  for  selection  presented? 

18.  What  is  the  importance  of  indicating  the  place 
where  advertised  goods  are  to  be  found  in  the  store 
itself? 

19.  How  do  you  get  artistic  effect  in  a  department 
store  advertisement? 

20.  What  is  the  importance  and  value  of  pictures? 
Their  limitations? 


RETAIL  ADVERTISING  341 


Advertising  Assignment  IV 

The  best  department  store  advertising  mediums  are 
the  Boston  Glohe  and  Herald,  the  Boston  Transcript, 
the  New  York  Herald,  the  World,  and  the  Times,  the 
Philadelphia  Record,  Inquirer,  and  Piiblic  Ledger,  and 
the  Chicago  Tribune  and  News,  It  is  suggested  that 
specimen  copies  be  obtained  of  the  Sunday  editions  of 
each  of  these  (except  the  Transcript  and  Chicago  News, 
which  have  none,  as  they  are  evening  papers),  and  the 
advertising  of  the  nearest  local  department  store  be 
taken  up  and  compared  critically  with  the  high-grade 
advertising  in  the  papers  mentioned.  Then  the  local 
advertising  should  be  reconstructed  and  rearranged  so 
as  to  improve  it.  One  or  two  weeks  may  well  be  spent 
on  this  work  if  that  amount  of  time  can  be  spared. 


V 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING 

General  advertising  is  done  through  national  maga- 
zines and  newspapers  for  the  most  part,  by  a  few  large 
corporations  which  spend  enormous  sums  of  money. 

Eetail  advertising  is  done  locally  in  newspapers, 
primarily  by  department  stores,  but  also  by  all  retail 
stores. 

Mail-order  advertising  is  done  in  national  magazines 
and  in  newspapers  for  the  purpose  of  getting  retail 
orders  that  can  be  filled  by  mail.  It  is  an  extension  of 
ordinary  retail  advertising,  and  usually  the  stock  is 
shown  by  pictures  and  descriptions  in  a  catalog  instead 
of  by  display  of  actual  goods  on  counters  and  in  store 
windows. 

Direct-by-mail  advertising  is  the  new  name  for  cir- 
cularizing. It  is  circularizing  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
scientific  advertising,  and  it  has  come  to  be,  perhaps,  the 
most  scientific  form  of  advertising  that  is  done. 

Advertising  among  dealers  is,  as  a  rule,  best  done  by 
the  direct-by-mail  method.  Dun's  and  Bradstreet's 
books  contain  complete  lists  of  dealers,  which  can  be 
selected  and  classified,  and  a  concentrated  appeal  can 
be  made  to  precisely  those  which  are  most  likely  to 
respond.  The  appeal  can  be  confined  to  certain  narrow 
sections  of  the  country,  or  it  can  be  made  national.  It 
can  be  varied  for  different  parts  of  the  country.  It  may 
be  for  inquiries  or  for  orders,  or  purely  general  and 
educational  to  prepare  the  way  for  traveling  men.  For 
wholesalers  and  many  manufacturers  it  is  the  only  form 

342 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING  343 


of  advertising  that  is  feasible,  and  it  may  be  used  to 
advantage  by  retailers  to  supplement  their  newspaper 
advertising  and  get  the  higher  grade  business  in  out- 
lying districts,  and  also  by  general  advertisers  not  alone 
in  circularizing  dealers  but  also  in  circularizing  con- 
sumers whose  names  are  often  furnished  by  dealers.  In 
short,  it  is  the  most  nearly  universal  form  of  advertising 
which  exists.  It  has  been  so  common  in  the  past  that  it 
was  not  much  regarded.  Within  the  last  ten  years  it 
has  been  developed  along  experimental  lines,  and  more 
and  more  it  has  proved  wonderfully  effective.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs,  in  1914, 
a  department  of  Direct-by-Mail  Advertising  was  organ- 
ized for  the  first  time,  and  it  was  immediately  one  of 
the  most  largely  attended  of  all  the  departments. 
Direct-by-mail  advertising  requires : 

1.  A  list  of  names  properly  selected  and  classified, 
the  character  and  quality  of  which  is  the  most  important 
first  consideration. 

2.  Letters  (usually  reproduced  in  facsimile  of  type- 
writing), with  or  without  names  and  addresses  filled  in 
to  match,  circulars  or  booklets  for  enclosure,  or  printed 
mailing-cards. 

3.  Some  form  of  direct  returns,  carried  often  by  a 
return  post-card,  or  in  a  return  envelop,  in  any  case 
carefully  checked  up  to  see  what  the  results  are  per 
thousand,  or  in  any  given  locality,  or  on  any  given  list. 
The  one  exception  to  this  is  educative  advertising  among 
dealers  who  are  soon  to  be  visited  by  traveling  men,  and 
in  that  case  the  increased  business  the  men  get  is  the 
direct  test  of  the  results  of  the  advertising. 

In  all  direct-by-mail  advertising  it  is  possible  sooner 
or  later  to  KNOW  WHAT  THE  RESULTS  ARE. 
Hitherto,  in  general  advertising,  it  has  been  impossible 
to  know,  and  in  retail  advertising  it  has  been  difficult. 


344        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  accurate  and  positive  records  of  mail-order  and 
direct-by-mail  advertising  have  been  practically  the 
beginning  of  a  scientific  basis  for  modern  advertising 
of  all  kinds.  Such  a  thing  as  a  science  without  positive 
records  is  unthinkable.  Since  mail-order  and  direct-by- 
mail  advertising  have  produced  accurate  and  detailed 
records,  advertising  as  a  whole  has  begun  to  be  taken 
out  of  the  category  of  a  gamble  and  placed  on  a  basis 
of  certainty  after  tests  have  eliminated  the  failures. 

Lists 

The  positive  results  of  direct  advertising  depend  first 
of  all  on  securing  the  right  list.  In  the  early  experi- 
ments, lists  were  purchased,  but  two  objections  were 
found  to  these  lists.  They  were  often  carelessly  or 
mechanically  compiled,  so  that  many  names  were  in- 
cluded which  were  dead  or  unavailable,  and  they  had 
been  worked  by  others  in  the  same  line  of  business  till 
they  had  been  worn  out. 

It  costs  at  least  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  thousand  to 
select  lists  from  Dun's  or  Bradstreet's,  or  from  the 
directories  of  bankers,  corporation  officers,  or  the  like, 
and  when  the  names  are  few  and  scattering  it  costs 
still  more.  As  a  guide  to  the  selection  in  Dun's  or 
Bradstreet's,  there  is  the  size  and  character  of  the  town, 
and  also  the  credit-rating  of  the  individual  both  as  to 
honesty  and  investment.  There  are  also  directories  of 
lawyers  and  doctors  with  ratings  showing  their  pro- 
fessional standing.  Names  of  individual  men  of  money 
may  be  compiled  from  local  tax-lists.  Names  of  house- 
holders with  a  certain  minimum  standing  in  the  com- 
munity may  be  compiled  from  telephone  directories. 
The  telephone  directory  is  corrected  four  times  a  year, 
and  where  there  is  a  residence  telephone  there  is  almost 
sure  to  be  a  woman  who  buys  for  a  household;  so  here 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING  345 


we  have  an  accurate  list  of  women  managers  of  well-to- 
do  households.  These  are  but  specimens  of  the  accurate 
published  lists,  carefully  corrected  from  time  to  time, 
from  which  a  still  closer  selection  may  be  made  with 
reference  to  location  and  professional  or  business  stand- 
ing. The  totals  of  these  lists  run  into  the  millions. 
There  are  over  50,000  grocers,  150,000  general  stores, 
upwards  of  200,000  manufacturers,  large  and  small,  or 
over  50,000  rather  large  manufacturers.  A  prominent 
New  York  weekly  has  lists  of  over  three-quarters  of  a 
million  names  suitable  for  circularizing  for  subscrip- 
tions. 

In  addition  to  the  lists  that  may  be  specially  compiled 
from  directories  of  various  kinds,  including  city  direc- 
tories, there  are  lists  obtained  from  advertising.  For 
example,  a  patent-medicine  house  by  extensive  adver- 
tising collects  the  names  of  many  thousands  who  have 
eczema,  and  after  the  concern  that  gathered  the  list  by 
advertising  has  exhausted  its  possibilities  it  will  sell  it 
through  a  broker  to  any  other  concern  that  might  be 
able  with  a  different  appeal  to  get  business  from  it. 
To  show  just  what  these  lists  are,  and  that  they  are 
genuine,  they  are  furnished  as  files  of  original  letters 
which  can  be  copied  and  returned  within  a  given  time 
to  the  broker  to  be  rented  out  to  some  other  concern. 
The  objection  to  lists  of  this  kind  is  that  they  are  soon 
worked  to  death,  and  will  not  produce  paying  returns. 
It  is  better  to  get  an  exclusive,  freshly  compiled  list,  or 
else  to  gather  a  list  anew  by  advertising  for  inquiries. 

The  best  lists  in*  any  business  are  the  lists  of  those 
who  have  bought  something.  The  manufacturer  may 
circularize  the  list  of  customers  of  a  retail  store,  the 
orders,  of  course,  to  be  sent  to  the  dealer,  and  no  list  of 
names  could  be  better.  When  one  concern  can  get  the 
list  of  actual  "buying  customers  from  another  concern. 


346        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


it  will  be  found  to  be  worth  a  high  price ;  but  few  con- 
cerns will  sell  the  list  of  their  customers  even  when  they 
know  nothing  of  a  competitive  nature  will  be  offered 
them,  because  the  oftener  they  are  circularized  the 
sooner  their  willingness  to  read  circular  advertising  is 
worn  out. 

All  lists  deteriorate  with  time,  as  people  move  from 
place  to  place  or  go  out  of  business.  One  way  of  cor- 
recting this  is  to  send  out  letters  under  a  two-cent  stamp, 
which  will  be  returned  if  not  delivered.  That  weeds 
out  those  who  have  moved  and  left  no  address;  but 
those  who  have  left  forwarding-addresses  will  get  their 
mail  just  the  same,  and  this  method  proves  a  failure  as 
to  them.  Many  different  devices  and  methods  must  be 
used  to  correct  lists  of  customers  especially,  which  are 
exclusive  and  are  used  for  many  years.  The  dead  mate- 
rial in  such  lists  means  that  on  each  name  there  is  a  loss 
of  the  stamp  and  stationery. 

Cost 

In  direct-by-mail  advertising  there  is,  first  of  all,  the 
fixt  cost  of  postage,  at  least  $10  a  thousand  when  one- 
cent  stamps  are  used.  Then  there  is  the  cost  of  the 
stationery,  seldom  less  than  one  dollar  a  thousand  each 
for  letterheads  and  for  envelops,  and  often  two  dollars 
a  thousand  for  each,  or  more.  With  most  circular  let- 
ters there  must  be  some  printed  circular  to  supplement 
the  brief  letter  and  tell  the  full  details  of  the  offer  to 
such  as  have  first  been  interested  by  the  letter.  Also 
there  is  likely  to  be  a  return  post-card  or  return  envelop. 
The  minimum  cost  of  each  of  these  will  hardly  be  under 
fifty  cents,  and  from  that  up  to  five  dollars  a  thousand. 

Here  is  the  list  of  items  for  which  we  must  provide: 

Postage, 

Letter-heads, 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING  347 


Envelops, 
Enclosures, 

Labor  of  "Writing  and  Enclosing. 

The  labor  of  sending  out  circular  letters  or  mailing- 
cards  has  been  standardized  by  companies  in  the  large 
cities  which  make  a  specialty  of  such  work.  They  sys- 
tematize the  work  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  make  a 
profit,  yet  quote  prices  that  will  actually  be  under  the 
cost  of  doing  the  work  in  a  private  office  by  employed 
help.  In  private  offices  pen-addressing  will  usually  not 
exceed  seven  or  eight  hundred  addresses  in  a  day,  while 
the  companies  will  get  fifteen  hundred  addresses  writ- 
ten; and  so  on. 

The  letters  must  be  reproduced  at  a  cost  usually  vary- 
ing between  one  and  two  dollars  a  thousand.  If  names 
and  addresses  are  filled  in  to  match,  that  will  cost  two  or 
two  and  a  half  dollars  a  thousand.  The  envelops  must 
in  any  case  be  addrest,  and  that  will  cost  for  pen-address- 
ing a  dollar  and  a  half  a  thousand  or  for  typewriter-ad- 
dressing two  dollars  or  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  thou- 
sand. The  letters  and  enclosures  must  be  folded  and 
inserted  into  the  envelop,  the  flap  tucked  in  or  sealed 
down,  and  a  stamp  affixt,  at  a  cost  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
cents  a  thousand  for  each  motion,  the  lowest  possible 
number  when  there  is  no  enclosure  being  five.  This 
makes  the  cost  of  labor  from  six  to  ten  dollars  a  thou- 
sand, or  the  minimum  total  cost  of  circulars  under  one- 
cent  postage  twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars  a  thousand. 

When  we  compare  this  with  reaching  people  by  news- 
paper or  magazine  advertising  in  page  space  at  one  to 
two  dollars  a  thousand  of  actual  circulation,  we  see  that 
direct-by-mail  advertising  is  very  expensive. 

The  true  basis  of  judgment,  however,  is  the  returns 
on  the  total  investment,  whether  large  or  small.  The 
direct-by-mail  method  concentrates  on  precisely  the  best 


348        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


persons,  the  appeal  can  be  made  more  nearly  complete, 
for  a  letter  and  enclosures  will  often  amount  to  the 
matter  on  three  or  four  pages  of  magazine  size,  or  even 
more.  The  return  post-card  or  return  envelop  are  better 
than  the  advertising  coupon.  Above  all,  a  test  can  be 
made  of  any  letter  or  circular  on  500  or  1,000  names  at 
a  cost  of  $15  to  $25,  and  if  the  test  is  not  successful  the 
larger  expenditure  is  saved  and  money  is  spent  for  only 
one  of  two  purposes,  to  make  tests  on  a  small  scale,  or 
to  mail  out  when  results  are  known  in  advance  and  a 
certain  profit  is  practically  assured.  This  very  greatly 
reduces  the  total  losses  and  wastes  of  direct-by-mail 
advertising  and  justifies  the  higher  cost  per  thousand. 

Mailing-Pieces  and  Enclosures 

A  mailing-piece  is  the  technical  designation  of  some 
sort  of  printed  card  or  circular  which  can  be  mailed  at 
once,  usually  without  wrapper,  while  printed  slips  or 
circulars  to  be  enclosed  with  letters  are  enclosures. 

The  post-office  permits  printed  cards  or  sheets  of  any 
size  to  be  sent  by  third-class  mail,  tho  cards  on  which 
there  is  writing  other  than  the  name  and  address  of  the 
persons  written  to  and  sending  must  come  within  a 
specified  range  of  sizes  as  indicated  by  the  official  postal 
cards.  If  mailing-pieces  are  made  large,  however,  they 
must  be  folded  and  held  together  with  a  clip  in  some 
way  or  they  will  be  torn  to  pieces  in  the  mail. 

The  condition  of  a  mailing-piece  when  it  is  received  is 
an  important  matter.  If  it  is  wider  than  four  inches 
or  longer  than  ten  it  is  pretty  certain  to  be  badly  dam- 
aged, and  that  will  spoil  the  effectiveness  of  it.  The 
size  of  a  number  ten  envelop  is  the  maximum  that  post- 
men carry  conveniently  in  their  packages  without  fold- 
ing, and  advertising  matter  should  be  kept  within  those 
limits. 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING  349 


Mailing-pieces  are  commonly  used  in  a  series  for  edu- 
cational purposes  where  variety  of  impression  is  desir- 
able. If  there  is  to  be  a  series  of  ten  pieces,  let  us  say, 
two  or  three  of  them  may  be  letters  and  the  rest  printed 
circulars  of  some  sort.  A  card  bearing  pictures  that 
are  either  ornamental  or  illustrative,  or  both,  often 
printed  in  colors,  sometimes  cut  into  novel  shapes,  serves 
to  get  attention  when  a  letter  might  be  thrown  into  the 
waste-basket.  When  variety  of  shape  and  appearance 
is  necessary,  mailing-pieces  are  almost  a  necessity.  They 
are  usually  not  substantial  enough  to  produce  orders, 
but  often  return  post-cards  are  attached  to  them  so  they 
can  readily  be  torn  off,  or  are  clipped  on,  and  these 
mailing-cards  will  produce  an  abundant  supply  of  good 
inquiries  on  the  return  portions. 

Enclosures  with  circular  letters  have  been  found  to 
be  indispensable  in  many  if  not  most  cases.  First,  a 
full  printed  circular  should  give  the  complete  details 
which  have  been  briefly  set  forth  in  the  letter.  "With- 
out such  a  circular  giving  the  complete  canvass  that 
a  salesman  would  give  if  he  were  on  the  spot,  orders 
will  not  come,  because  customers  will  feel  they  do  not 
have  sufficient  information  to  justify  them  in  placing 
orders.  Often  the  form  and  contents  of  the  circular 
determine  the  success  of  the  circularizing,  and  good 
letters  will  fail  if  accompanied  by  poor  circulars.  Only 
the  small  percentage  of  those  who  have  been  favorably 
influenced  by  the  letters  will  care  particularly  to  read 
the  circulars;  but  they  must  be  there  for  all,  so  that 
those  few  order-placers  may  be  canvassed  to  the  point 
of  buying. 

In  addition,  it  is  often  felt  that  when  letters  are  not 
intended  to  produce  orders,  but  are  purely  educational, 
some  little  printed  slip  helps  the  effectiveness  of  a  letter. 
Such  printed  slips  may  describe  some  special  item  of 


350        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


furniture  or  groceries,  and  will  be  enclosed  with  the 
invoices  and  ordinary  letters  going  out  from  the  house. 
Sometimes  a  small  circular  descriptive  of  a  book  or 
piece  of  merchandise  entirely  different  from  that  spoken 
of  in  the  letter  will  be  enclosed  with  a  form-letter  and 
regular  circular  to  catch  a  few  persons  whom  the  main 
letter  and  circular  will  not  interest.  These  enclosures, 
which  are  not  even  referred  to  in  the  form-letters,  will 
bring  a  few  additional  orders  which  will  help  to  raise 
the  total  returns  from  the  mailing  to  a  paying  point. 

Printed  mailing-pieces  and  enclosures  are  designed 
very  largely  along  the  lines  of  display  advertising,  ex- 
cept that  since  there  is  no  limitation  of  space  there  is 
no  such  serious  effort  at  condensation.  The  possibility 
of  taking  all  the  space  desired  is  one  of  the  great  advan- 
tages of  direct-by-mail  advertising.  Also  color  may  be 
used  without  too  great  expense. 

One-  or  Two-cent  Postage — Which? 

The  advantage  of  imitating  a  strictly  personal  letter, 
including  filling  in  the  name  to  match  the  imitation 
typewritten  body,  signing  letters  with  ink,  and  putting 
on  a  two-cent  stamp,  is  not  so  much  to  deceive  people  in 
this  day  when  every  one  recognizes  a  form-letter,  as  it 
is  to  get  the  letter  into  the  personal  pile  when  they  are 
sorted  each  morning.  Usually  there  are  two  piles,  one 
pile  of  personal  letters  for  immediate  attention,  another 
pile  of  printed  circulars  for  attention  at  a  later  time 
when  leisure  may  be  found  (and  this  too  often  is  never). 
Letters  that  have  the  personal  look  are  likely  to  get  into 
the  personal  pile  and  receive  more  prompt  and  careful 
attention  than  type-printed  circulars  which  are  laid 
aside  to  be  looked  over  at  leisure. 

Signing  all  letters  with  ink  is  allowed  by  the  post- 
office  department,  even  when  they  go  third  class,  since 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING  351 


the  name  and  address  of  the  person  addrest  and  the 
person  sending  may  always  be  written  on  any  package 
of  whatever  class.  This  permits  the  signing  of  circular 
letters  with  ink,  and  a  ''pen-writer"  may  be  hired  for 
a  dollar  a  thousand  to  do  the  signing,  since  the  auto- 
graph will  not  be  recognized  in  any  case. 

Letters  which  go  to  heads  of  firms,  or  the  like,  usually 
must  be  sent  under  two-cent  postage,  and  in  as  strictly 
a  personal  style  all  the  way  through  as  possible.  The 
match  of  the  address  with  the  body  should  be  perfect, 
the  signature  pen-written,  and  the  envelop  sealed. 

Letters  which  are  just  as  likely  to  get  orders  from 
office-boys  or  clerks  as  from  the  head  of  the  house  will 
produce  business  even  if  sent  under  one-cent  postage. 
Circularizing  for  subscriptions,  book  sales,  etc.,  usually 
can  be  done  with  greater  profit  under  one-cent  postage. 
Circularizing  for  the  sale  of  bonds  or  the  like  should 
be  done  only  under  two-cent  postage,  with  high-grade 
stationery. 

Hints  on  Booklet-Making 

A  booklet  should  be  prepared  by  a  man  who  has  some 
command  of  a  literary  style.  It  must  be  written  easily, 
freely,  gracefully,  and,  above  all,  should  be  in  itself 
thoroughly  interesting  as  a  piece  of  literature  or  for  its 
valuable  information.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  a  booklet 
which  is  only  a  long-drawn-out  advertisement  will  never 
be  read.  But  a  booklet  which  is  printed  attractively,  is 
divided  into  short  sections  with  suggestive  headings,  and 
contains  information  of  permanent  and  genuine  interest, 
will  serve  its  purpose  successfully. 

A  booklet  is  not  usually  read  by  more  than  one  person, 
and  there  must  be  considerable  money  in  the  possible 
orders  from  that  one  person  to  make  it  advisable  to  send 
out  a  booklet  at  all. 


352        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


The  booklet  should,  then,  be  sent  only  to  the  person 
known  to  be  interested,  usually  an  inquirer.  Sending 
booklets  broadcast  is  likely  to  be  a  sheer  waste. 

A  booklet  gotten  up  merely  for  its  curious  beauty  or 
oddity  may  be  examined,  but  it  is  less  likely  to  have  the 
desired  effect  than  one  which  is  plainer,  simpler,  and  in 
itself  more  convincing  or  informing.  I  am  a  believer  in 
the  plain,  neat,  tasteful,  clear,  simple,  and  perfectly  ar- 
ranged booklet.  Sixteen  small  pages  are  usually  enough, 
the  type  should  be  easily  readable  (neither  small  nor 
large  and  fancy),  and  the  whole  design  should  be  such 
as  simply  to  make  reading  easy  and  attractive.  The 
meat  of  the  booklet  will  be  found  not  in  the  mechanical 
execution  but  in  what  is  said. 

To  write  a  good  booklet  a  man  must  have  been  a  long 
and  careful  student  of  human  nature.  Knowing  his 
man  (or  woman)  to  the  smallest  detail,  he  will  talk  to 
him  in  a  simple,  straightforward,  earnest,  convincing 
manner,  never  exaggerating,  never  wavering,  never  re- 
laxing the  intensity  of  his  literary  gaze.  He  has  some- 
thing worth  saying,  or  he  wouldn't  be  writing  a  booklet; 
and  he  says  it  so  that  it  must  be  read,  and  once  read 
can  not  but  be  remembered.  That  is  the  height  of 
business  literary  art,  and  it  is  the  point  at  which  literary 
art  unites  with  business. 

A  booklet  to  draw  business  must  first  of  all  have  a 
title  which  describes  something  that  the  customer  will 
want.    The  title  is  very  important. 

Then  the  booklet  itself  must  be  a  thing  of  intrinsic 
value.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  reader  is  curious  about 
what  you  have  to  offer,  and  wants  full  information.  He 
wants  to  get  something  worth  having  to  pay  him  for  the 
time  he  is  taking  to  read  your  matter.  This  question  of 
time  is  an  important  item.  Many  people  are  more  loth 
to  spend  time  than  money,  and  it  is  a  serious  mistake  to 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING  353 


trench  in  any  way  on  a  man's  time.  This  can  be  avoided 
if  the  booklet  is  at  once  a  thing  of  intrinsic  value  and 
interest  and  a  good  advertisement  for  what  you  are 
offering. 

Proper  Style  in  Which  to  Write  a  Booklet 

The  best  model  of  a  good  booklet  is  an  advertising 
magazine  article  filling  about  four  pages.  It  is  written 
in  the  best  magazine  literary  style,  with  frequent  sub- 
heads, and  usually  with  copious  magazine  illustrations. 
It  is  sharper,  shorter,  snappier  than  the  average  literary 
article  of  the  same  kind.  It  is  intensely  practical  and 
fascinating  by  reason  of  the  fundamental  information 
and  suggestive  discussion.  Yet  it  is  deftly  and  subtly 
calculated  to  lead  the  mind  to  some  particular  commer- 
cial goal,  namely  the  purchase  of  the  thing  that  is  being 
advertised. 

If  the  thing  advertised  can  be  found  to  be  really  in- 
teresting in  itself,  to  have  its  oddities,  its  philosophy, 
and  its  universal  value  to  human  nature,  that  should 
form  the  subject  of  the  booklet.  Then  there  is  no  de- 
ception about  it.  It  is  a  frank  discussion  of  an  inter- 
esting thing,  in  which  you  are  deeply  interested,  and 
which  leads  most  naturally  to  the  plea  for  a  sale. 

If  the  thing  advertised  does  not  permit  of  such  dis- 
cussion, the  booklet  must  be  made  interesting  any  way, 
and  outside  matter  must  be  sought.  This  outside  matter 
should  be  as  closely  connected  with  the  thing  advertised 
as  possible,  for  there  is  always  danger  when  it  comes  to 
bridging  the  chasm  between  the  interesting  booklet  on 
an  outside  subject  and  the  question  of  making  a  sale. 

The  Use  and  Abuse  of  Catalogs  and  Booklets 

Many  business  men  make  the  great  mistake  of  sup- 
posing that  a  catalog  or  booklet  is  a  paper  salesman. 
The  fact  is,  it  is  only  half  a  salesman.    It  is  the  sales- 


354        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


man  that  gets  orders  from  those  already  interested,  but 
it  does  little  or  nothing  to  get  orders  from  strangers. 
The  personal  letter  must  make  a  complete  impression  in 
itself.  The  letter  that  does  not  come  near  to  making  a 
sale  in  itself  without  reference  to  a  booklet  or  catalog 
is  usually  an  exceedingly  poor  letter. 

I  myself  in  many  lines  of  business  should  never  send 
a  catalog  except  on  request.  The  man  who  asks  for  it 
is  the  man  who  needs  it.  The  man  who  does  not  ask 
for  it  is  very  unlikely  ever  to  read  it. 

Again  and  again  have  I  read  letters  which  refer  to 
the  catalog  and  ask  me  to  read  it  all  through  carefully. 
This  I  never  do.  I  throw  it  in  the  waste-paper  basket 
because  I  haven't  time  to  wade  through  so  much  matter. 

When  a  booklet  or  catalog  is  sent  with  a  canvassing 
letter,  it  should  be  considered  that  it  will  be  read  only 
by  those  on  whom  the  letter  has  made  an  impression. 
Those  few  may  read  it  with  deep  interest,  and  it  will 
aid  in  getting  an  order  from  them.  All  the  others 
probably  will  never  look  at  it.  At  any  rate,  the  adver- 
tiser should  go  on  the  theory  that  they  never  will. 

A  catalog  sent  broadcast  to  the  trade  usually  is 
treated  with  the  same  indifference.  I  myself  last  sum- 
mer sent  5,000  booklet  circulars  to  old  customers,  and 
got  six  $1  orders.  It  was  practically  a  dead  loss.  I 
sent  the  same  booklet  circular  with  a  strong  personal 
letter  to  1,000  of  the  same  names  and  got  one  hundred 
orders.  Mr.  W.  C.  Holman,  editor  of  Salesmanship, 
has  told  me  that  a  two-page  advertisement  in  his  mag- 
azine of  his  Ginger  Talks"  brought  but  six  $2  orders, 
while  one  thousand  letters  to  subscribers  brought  eighty- 
two  $2  orders. 

Many  manufacturers  and  others  have  a  house-organ 
monthly  magazine  which  they  send  out  at  great  expense. 
I  would  a  hundred  times  rather  send  out  monthly  let- 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING 


355 


ters,  except  to  old  customers  who  request  the  magazine. 
For  customers  who  want  it,  a  catalog  or  booklet  is  in- 
dispensable, and  of  the  highest  value.  For  others,  from 
many  experiments  and  much  observation,  I  believe  it  is, 
comparatively  speaking,  of  very  little  value. 

Classified  Advertising 

One  form  of  direct  advertising  demands  special  at- 
tention, and  that  is  Classified  Advertising,  whether  run 
in  newspaper  or  magazines. 

The  value  of  classified  advertising  depends  first  of 
all  upon  the  habit  of  certain  numbers  of  people  of  look- 
ing in  a  certain  periodical,  in  a  certain  place,  to  find 
certain  kinds  of  advertisements.  Until  that  habit  has 
been  formed,  classified  advertising  can  have  little  value, 
and  papers  that  are  trying  to  build  up  their  classified 
advertising  departments  find  it  an  extremely  difficult 
matter.  Normally  there  is  one  paper  in  a  town  that 
carries  classified  advertising  that  pays,  and  that  is 
usually  only  in  the  larger  cities.  Only  a  few  magazines 
have  been  entirely  successful  in  establishing  profitable 
classified  advertising  departments. 

In  general  advertising,  people  are  likely  to  notice  any 
unusual  thing,  but  as  a  rule  in  reading  classified  adver- 
tising they  are  intent  on  finding  some  one  particular 
thing,  and  they  respond  to  nothing  that  does  not  seem 
to  be  in  line  with  that  thing.  Hence  any  advertisement 
that  is  not  properly  classified  is  lost,  and  any  attempt 
to  advertise  things  which  do  not  come  under  popular 
classification  is  likely  to  fail.  The  field  is  pretty 
closely  narrowed  to  a  few  profitable  mediums  and  a  few 
profitable  classifications. 

The  space  occupied  makes  little  difference  so  long  as 
you  say  what  you  have  to  say  and  say  it  clearly.  When 
rather  full  explanations  are  demanded,  considerable 


356        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


space  must  be  used.  "When  everything  of  essential  im- 
portance can  be  put  in  a  couple  of  lines,  it  would  be 
foolish  to  use  more.  The  great  question  is,  Have  you 
got  all  of  the  essential  things  in  or  not,  looking  at  matters 
from  the  other  fellow's  point  of  view? 

To  most  of  us  the  most  important  classified  advertise- 
ment is  that  intended  for  the  Help-Wanted  or  Situation- 
Wanted  columns.  When  we  want  a  job,  the  best  way 
to  get  it  is  by  a  classified  advertisement;  and  as  our 
loss  of  time  while  waiting  for  a  position  becomes  a 
serious  matter  to  us,  the  successful  wording  of  such  an 
advertisement  is  extremely  important.  It  is  a  matter 
of  knowing  just  what  the  other  fellow  wants  that  we  can 
furnish,  and  stating  that  thing  in  the  most  simple  and 
direct  style.  This  is  a  kind  of  advertisement  that  it  is 
worth  our  while  to  write  again  and  again  till  we  get 
it  right.  Each  time  we  should  stand  off  and  look  at 
ourselves,  and  look  at  the  other  fellow,  and  then  con- 
sider once  more  whether  we  have  touched  the  exact 
point  where  the  two  ought  to  come  together. 

Questions  on  Direct-by-Mail  Advertising 

1.  How  are  general  advertising,  retail  advertising, 
and  mail-order  advertising  done?  What  is  direct-by- 
mail  advertising  a  new  name  for  ?  What  is  the  occasion 
for  a  new  name? 

2.  In  what  field  is  the  direct-by-mail  method  especi- 
ally applicable,  and  why  ? 

3.  What  are  the  essential  elements  in  direct-by-mail 
advertising  ? 

4.  Just  why  is  direct-by-mail  advertising  so  much 
more  certain  and  definite  than  any  other  kind? 

5.  Describe  fully  how  lists  are  prepared,  their  cost, 
and  the  various  kinds. 

6.  Analyze  the  cost  of  direct-by-mail  advertising. 


DIRECT-BY-MAIL  ADVERTISING 


357 


7.  Describe  mailing-pieces,  and  bring  to  the  class 
various  examples  of  mailing-pieces  and  enclosures. 

8.  How  do  you  determine  whether  to  use  one-  or  two- 
cent  postage  ? 

9.  "What  are  the  mediums  for  classified  advertise- 
ments, and  what  are  the  essentials  in  their  preparation  ? 

Advertising  Assignment  V 

Let  us  reply  to  mail-order  advertisements  (which  are 
intended  to  build  lists  on  which  direct-by-mail  sales- 
manship may  be  applied)  and  collect  a  number  of  cir- 
cular letters,  enclosures,  etc.,  and  bring  them  to  the 
class  with  a  criticism  of  each. 

Advertising  Assignment  VI 

After  carefully  considering  the  business  to  which  we 
have  given  special  study,  let  us  see  if  classified  adver- 
tising in  newspapers,  or  national  periodicals  like  Everij- 
hody's  Magazine  or  C oilier Weekly ,  might  not  be  pos- 
sible, and  then  write  the  advertisements.  Or  we  may 
prepare  half  a  dozen  want-advertisements  for  positions 
for  ourselves,  some  long  and  some  short,  trying  to 
determine  just  what  treatment  would  be  likely  to  give 
the  best  results. 


VI 


KEYING  AND  TESTING  ADVERTISING 

Unless  you  know  what  returns  you  get  from  your 
advertising,  there  is  no  possibility  of  knowing  whether 
it  pays  or  not,  nor  of  eliminating  the  inevitable  waste. 
At  least  75  per  cent,  of  miscellaneous  advertising  is 
wasted.  The  whole  idea  of  science  in  advertising  is  to 
eliminate  that  waste,  and  the  basis  of  all  science  is  exact 
knowledge.  The  great  development  of  the  next  few 
years  in  the  study  of  advertising  must  be  testing  and 
checking  returns. 

Direct-by-mail  advertising  is  more  easily  tested  than 
any  other  form.  Here  is  our  list,  usually  running  to 
several  thousand.  We  try  our  form-letters  and  circu- 
lars on  five  hundred,  sometimes  a  thousand.  The  pro- 
portion of  returns  on  five  hundred  is  likely  to  hold  for 
the  entire  list  with  no  very  great  variation.  If  the 
mailing  costs  twenty-five  dollars  a  thousand  and  there 
is  a  profit  of  five  dollars  on  each  article  sold,  five  orders 
must  be  received  before  any  profit  can  be  shown,  or 
two  and  a  half  orders  from  five  hundred  letters.  There 
must  be  some  margin  for  contingencies  and  variation, 
say  three  to  the  thousand,  making  eight  in  all,  or  four 
orders  from  five  hundred.  If  four  orders  are  received 
from  the  test  on  five  hundred  we  see  a  chance  of  success. 
If  five  or  six  orders  are  received,  we  know  that  we  have 
a  good  margin  of  safety  and  are  assured  of  an  excellent 
profit.  If  less  than  four  are  received  we  try  again 
with  another  letter  or  another  circular.  Of  course, 
chance  may  bring  one  order  more  or  one  order  less,  and 

358 


KEYING  AND  TESTING  ADVERTISING  859 


when  the  total  returns  on  the  test  are  as  small  as  four 
we  should  follow  that  test  up  with  another  on  a  larger 
number,  say  two  thousand,  or  in  proportion  to  the  size 
of  the  total  list. 

Often  as  many  as  eight  or  ten  letters  are  tried  out, 
one  after  the  other,  before  one  is  discovered  that  will 
produce  the  proper  proportion  of  returns.  Even  the 
most  experienced  and  competent  advertising  man  will 
fail  of tener  than  he  will  succeed ;  but  systematic  testing 
and  continued  trial  will  discover  the  winning  letter  at 
the  smallest  possible  cost,  and  when  the  large  expendi- 
ture is  made  the  advertiser  may  feel  that  the  returns 
are  certain.  That  is  scientific  advertising.  Too  many 
American  business  men  are  in  a  hurry  and  say,  ^^That 
letter  looks  good  to  me ;  I  will  take  a  chance  on  it,  and 
send  out  twenty  thousand  without  testing.''  Their 
failures  to  get  results  discourage  them,  whereas  if  they 
made  systematic  tests  they  would  lose  so  little  on  their 
failures  and  make  so  much  on  their  successes  that  they 
would  soon  be  engaging  in  extensive  and  highly  profit- 
able advertising. 

Mail-order  advertising  in  newspapers  and  magazines 
may  be  tested  in  a  similar  way.  First  a  medium  of 
known  pulling  power  is  selected,  and  preferably  one  in 
which  the  advertising  rate  is  as  low  as  possible.  Its 
pulling  power  on  that  particular  business,  however,  must 
be  known.  The  advertisement  is  then  run  once  in  that 
and  the  returns  carefully  noted.  If  inquiries  rather 
than  orders  are  sought,  the  inquiries  must  be  followed 
up  to  see  how  many  final  orders  are  secured,  since  in- 
quiries may  come  in  plenty  yet  they  may  not  be  of  a  kind 
that  will  produce  business.  Only  final  orders  constitute 
a  final  test  as  to  whether  it  pays  to  advertise  or  not, 
tho  many  business  men  think  that  if  they  get  the  in- 
quiries they  have  already  succeeded,  and  jump  hastily 


360        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


into  an  expensive  advertising  campaign,  only  to  dis- 
cover later  that  they  can  not  get  orders  from  the  in- 
quiries. 

"When  a  piece  of  copy  has  been  proved  successful  in  a 
medium  of  known  power  it  is  safe  to  run  it  in  all  other 
mediums  of  pulling  power  that  is  believed  to  be  good. 
"When  an  advertisement  is  run  in  several  periodicals  at 
the  same  time,  the  orders  or  inquiries  must  be  assigned 
to  the  particular  periodical  from  which  they  came,  and 
this  is  accomplished  by  keying  the  advertisements. 

There  are  various  ways  of  keying  advertisements. 
At  one  time  each  periodical  was  given  a  department 
number  and  inquirers  were  asked  to  address  their  letters 
to  ''Dept.  5,"  or  to  ask  for  ''Booklet  D,"  as  if  the 
business  were  an  enormous  one,  and  there  might  be  con- 
fusion in  the  mail  after  it  reached  the  office  of  the  con- 
cern addrest.  When  the  business  was  known  to  be 
small,  this  was  so  ridiculous  that  the  public  paid  little 
attention  to  the  key.  Requests  that  inquirers  mention 
the  magazine  in  which  they  see  the  advertisement  have 
also  proved  futile,  for  they  neglect  to  do  it.  The  method 
of  keying  that  seems  to  have  proved  most  successful  is 
to  select  a  fictitious  room  or  street  number.  For  ex- 
ample, in  one  building  the  highest  number  on  a  floor  is 
1411,  14  indicating  the  floor  and  11  the  room  number. 
All  higher  numbers  such  as  1412,  1413,  1414,  etc.,  do 
not  exist,  and  mail  addrest  to  them  will  easily  be  de- 
livered to  the  proper  room.  So  fictitious  street  numbers 
may  be  used.  If  the  highest  number  in  a  certain  block 
is  653,  all  the  numbers  above  that,  as  654,  655,  etc.,  may 
be  used  as  key  numbers  and  there  will  be  no  trouble  in 
getting  mail  delivered.  A  few  customers  will  call  in 
person,  and  when  they  do  so  they  will  find  that  the 
number  given  in  the  advertisement  is  incorrect.  As 
these  are  few,  the  difficulty  is  not  a  serious  one.    It  is 


KEYING  AND  TESTING  ADVERTISING 


o 


o 
m 

CM 

Cm 

00 
CM 

CM 

CM 

o> 

If) 
CM 

00 

^ 
CM 

CO 
CM 

CM 
CM 

in 

CM 

rl- 

O 
CM 

CO 

G} 

CM 

00 

Inq. 

6 

Inq, 

6 

Inq. 

O 

Inq. 

6 

Inq. 

O 

Inq. 

O 

Key 

Key 

PERIODICAL 

SECOND  HALF 

CO 

S 
cr 
O 

362       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


very  desirable,  however,  that  only  fictitious  numbers  be 
used  and  not  numbers  belonging  to  other  firms,  for 
when  the  numbers  are  real  but  belong  to  another  con- 
cern, inquiries  will  go  directly  to  the  wrong  place  and 
needless  annoyance  will  be  occasioned  some  neighbor. 
Fictitious  street  and  room  numbers  will  usually  be 
written  on  the  letter  of  inquiry  by  the  customer,  because 
he  thinks  the  number  necessary  in  order  to  have  his  letter 
delivered.  Sometimes  a  fictitious  initial  is  used  in  a 
name,  as  when  the  name  is  George  W.  Mcllvaine,  the 
advertising  will  appear  over  the  name  of  George  V. 
Mcllvaine,  George  U.  Mcllvaine,  George  T.  Mcllvaine, 
etc.,  but  this  makes  people  wonder  too  much  when  they 
get  letters  signed  George  W.  Mcllvaine,"  when  they 
have  addrest  George  T.  Mcllvaine.''  Those  who  go  to 
a  fictitious  address  are  very  few,  but  all  mail-order  cus- 
tomers would  notice  the  other  discrepancy.  The  key 
should  be  something  that  will  attract  as  little  attention 
as  possible. 

When  a  certain  room  or  street  number  is  used  as  a 
key,  immediately  on  receipt  of  letters,  all  those  bearing 
a  certain  number  will  be  noted,  and  the  total  number 
received  will  be  entered  in  a  space  on  a  card  like  that 
shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration.  Such  a  card 
as  this  will  show  at  a  glance  how  many  replies  have 
been  received  from  any  given  periodical  on  any  day, 
week,  or  month.  If  the  key-number  is  written  only  on 
the  envelop,  it  is  transferred  to  the  letter  itself  by  the 
mail-clerk,  and  when  a  record-card  is  written  up  the 
name  of  the  periodical  which  the  key  represents  will  be 
written  on  the  card  with  the  name  and  other  informa- 
tion. On  this  card  the  record  of  the  follow-up  will  be 
kept.  Eecords  of  this  kind  make  it  possible  to  see  at 
a  glance  just  what  each  inquiry  cost  in  each  periodical, 
and  periodicals  which  fail  to  pull  orders  or  inquiries  at 


KEYING  AND  TESTING  ADVERTISING  363 


a  profit  are  dropt.  A  continual  test  is  going  on,  for 
there  will  be  a  continual  variation,  and  each  new  piece 
of  copy  should  go  through  the  testing  process.  In  a  well 
organized  business  house  the  testing  of  advertising  is 
a  very  serious  and  regular  business,  under  the  special 
charge  of  an  employee  who  understands  it  thoroughly. 

Testing  Retail  Advertising 

Retail  advertising  is  direct  advertising  in  which  the 
people  come  to  the  store  in  response  to  the  advertise- 
ment. If  dresses  are  advertised,  in  the  dress-depart- 
ment there  may  be  a  larger  number  of  customers  than 
usual.  Some  of  these  will  ask  for  the  advertised  goods. 
Others  will  come  on  account  of  the  advertising,  but 
will  not  mention  it  at  all.  In  order  to  judge  the  ad- 
vertising it  is  necessary  to  place  in  the  hands  of  each 
clerk  a  card  like  Illustration  A.  On  this  there  is  one 
column  for  calls  and  one  for  calls  supposed  to  be  in 
response  to  the  advertisement,  and  one  for  all  sales. 
When  the  ordinary  daily  sales  are  known,  an  increase 
indicates  partly  the  power  of  the  advertising,  tho  the 
efforts  of  the  clerks  to  make  sales  will  often  influence 
the  totals,  as  clerks  concentrate  on  one  line  of  goods  or 
another,  according  as  they  find  themselves  interested  in 
it. 

Illustration  A  is  a  card  arranged  for  keeping  the 
daily  or  weekly  record  of  five  different  articles  in  one 
department.  Each  article  is  written  on  the  back  of 
the  card  and  given  one  of  the  numbers  by  way  of  refer- 
ence, and  all  the  calls  and  sales  under  that  number  are 
credited  to  the  corresponding  article. 

Each  night  or  each  week  the  individual  cards  of  the 
different  clerks  are  gathered  up  and  the  totals  entered 
on  another  card  like  Illustration  B.  Observe  that 
the  condition  of  the  weather  is  an  important  item  in 


HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


Sec.  Clerk  No.  Date 


d 
z 

=  1  ^ 

TO     1  TO 

Calls 
Sales 

Calls  1 
Sales  J 

Calls  II 
Sales-  1 

Calls 
Sales 

/ 

$ 

>/ 

$ 

V 

$ 

i 

$ 

$ 

1 

2 

O 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

FORM 

9  A 

ILLUSTRATION  A 


KEYING  AND  TESTING  ADVERTISING  365 


judging  the  efficacy  of  advertising,  since  if  the  adver- 
tisement appears  on  an  evening  preceding  a  rainy  or 
very  cold  day,  the  returns  will  necessarily  be  lost.  That 
is  one  of  the  chances  retailers  must  take,  but  a  record 
of  it  is  important  if  we  are  to  judge  the  advertising 
returns  wisely. 

Testing  the  pulling  power  of  different  papers  is  not 
very  important  in  retail  advertising,  as  there  are  but 
two  or  three  possible  papers  in  any  case,  and  their 
quality  soon  becomes  known.  When  testing  papers  is 
necessary,  about  the  only  way  is  to  run  a  certain  adver- 
tisement first  in  the  new  periodical,  and  after  the  returns 
have  been  received  run  it  again  in  the  known  periodical 
and  compare  the  results  on  different  days  or  weeks. 

Retail  advertising  changes  so  rapidly  that  when  a 
pulling  advertisement  has  been  found  it  can  only  serve 
the  purpose  of  indicating  to  the  advertising  manager 
what  sort  of  copy  has  got  business  for  him,  to  guide  him 
the  next  time.  In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  he  will 
discover  easily,  if  he  studies  the  returns,  what  his 
advertising  is  accomplishing,  and  what  advertisements 
stand  out  as  winners.  Without  this  constant  study  of 
records  he  will  be  making  the  same  mistakes  over  and 
over  again,  and  he  will  not  even  know  when  he  has 
made  a  success,  so  that  he  can  repeat  it. 

Testing  General  Advertising 

When  customers  who  are  influenced  by  general  ad- 
vertising go  to  a  store,  and  only  the  dealer  meets  them, 
and  he  does  not  know  how  they  happened  to  be  in- 
fluenced to  ask  for  certain  goods — indeed,  often  the  cus- 
tomers themselves  are  entirely  unconscious  that  they 
were  influenced  by  advertising  they  have  seen — checking 
the  returns  by  any  of  the  methods  already  described 
becomes  impossible.    In  general  publicity  advertisements 


HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


f  2 


Adv. 
Price 

Reg. 
Price 

to 

o 

Cost 
Last  year 

Cost 
This  year 

Space 

Total 
Sales 

Direct 
Sales 

Calls 

tf 
< 

Sec. 

o 

KEYING  AND  TESTING  ADVERTISING  367 


a  booklet  may  be  offered,  and  the  number  of  requests 
received  for  it  may  give  some  faint  suggestion  of  the 
pulling  power  of  the  advertisement  or  the  periodical; 
but  as  the  advertisement  is  intended  to  send  customers 
to  retail  stores,  and  advertisers  often  pay  little  attention 
to  following  up  the  scattering  inquiries  they  do  get,  the 
number  of  inquiries  for  a  booklet  or  novelty  is  a  very 
poor  indication  of  the  value  of  the  advertising.  Some 
entirely  different  method  must  be  used. 

The  best  method  of  testing  general  publicity  is  to 
conduct  a  complete  campaign  in  some  one  or  more  towns 
which  have  been  selected  as  typical.  A  small  city,  say 
of  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  with  a  repre- 
sentative population,  may  be  chosen.  The  newspaper 
advertising  rate  is  low  and  the  experiments  need  not 
cost  much.  A  newspaper  campaign  running  through 
ten  weeks  can  often  be  conducted  for  as  little  as  a 
hundred  dollars.  The  goods  to  be  advertised  are  placed 
on  sale  either  at  some  one  store,  or  at  all  the  stores  of 
that  kind  in  the  town.  A  complete  campaign  is  carried 
out,  with  the  newspapers,  counter  and  window  displays, 
street-car  cards,  and  bill-boards,  whatever  may  be  re- 
quired. Each  dealer  may  be  supplied  with  suitable 
record-cards,  and  the  advertising  man  may  call  each 
day  or  each  week  at  the  stores  to  get  the  reports  of  the 
clerks.  The  system  for  retail  advertising  is  carried  out 
in  each,  and  in  addition  the  comments  of  clerks  or  even 
the  comments  of  customers  who  may  be  interviewed  will 
serve,  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  to  indicate  pretty 
clearly  what  copy  pulls  and  what  does  not,  and  just  how 
well  the  campaign  pays. 

This  systematic  testing  out  of  general  advertising  re- 
quires considerable  time  and  patience,  and  American 
business  men  as  a  rule  lack  both.  If  such  tests  were 
carried  out,  hundreds  of  concerns  that  have  not  been 


368        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


general  advertisers  would  find  out  how  they  could  make 
it  pay.  They  have  been  discouraged  because  they  have 
thrown  in  a  certain  sum  at  oiie  time  and  lost  it.  They 
did  not  know  how  they  lost  it,  but  they  condemn  all 
advertising  because  of  that  single  failure.  Tossing  in 
more  sums  without  knowing  whether  they  will  be  re- 
turned or  not  will  not  help  matters.  It  is  better  not 
to  advertise  than  to  go  on  gambling,  for  untested  adver- 
tising is  nothing  but  a  gamble. 

Questions  on  Keying  and  Testing  Advertisements 

1.  How  can  the  tremendous  waste  in  advertising  be 
eliminated  ? 

2.  "What  kind  of  advertising  is  most  certain,  and  how 
can  its  methods  be  applied  to  other  kinds?  Describe  in 
detail  the  process  of  testing  direct-by-mail  advertising. 

3.  How  is  mail-order  advertising  in  periodicals 
tested? 

4.  Explain  the  different  ways  of  keying  advertise- 
ments, and  illustrate  the  way  in  which  the  records  are 
kept. 

5.  How  is  retail  advertising  tested?  Explain  in 
detail  the  method  of  keeping  the  record,  and  analyzing 
it  for  comparison  from  year  to  year. 

6.  How  can  the  same  general  methods  be  adapted  to 
testing  general  advertising,  and  what  is  the  importance 
of  such  testing? 


VII 


PRINTING 

The  invention  of  printing  has  made  modern  life 
what  it  is,  and  the  terms  and  methods  used  in  the  art  are 
much  the  same  the  world  over.  The  general  subject 
divides  itself  into  three  divisions:  (1)  composition,  or 
typesetting;  (2)  paper  and  presswork,  or  printing  the 
type  on  paper  by  means  of  a  printing-press,  and  (3) 
hinding,  or  folding,  sewing  or  stitching,  and  casing  up  or 
covering,  so  as  to  make  a  bound  book  or  pamphlet. 

Composition.  Ordinary  type  is  set  by  hand,  and  is 
tnade  of  metal.  Very  large  type  for  posters,  cards,  etc., 
is  sometimes  made  of  wood.  The  linotype  machine  sets 
by  the  touch  of  keys  (like  typewriter-keys)  what  are 
called  matrices,  and  casts  an  entire  line  of  type,  all  on 
one  solid  body.  The  monotype  machine  casts  lines  made 
up  of  individual  types  such  as  are  usually  bought  at 
the  foundries  and  set  by  hand. 

The  sizes  of  type  are  now  usually  measured  by  what 
is  called  the  point-system,  72  points  to  the  inch.  Type 
a  sixth  of  an  inch  high  would  be  12-point,  a  twelfth 
of  an  inch  high,  6-point,  etc.  The  letter  m  is  square, 
as  broad  as  it  is  high,  and  the  letter  n  is  half  as  broad 
as  it  is  high.  These  sizes  without  letters  on  them  are 
used  as  spaces,  and  are  called  em-quads  and  en-quads. 

Strips  of  metal  between  lines  are  called  leads,  and  are 
most  commonly  two  points  thick.  Leaded  8-point 
is  therefore  as  high  from  bottom  of  line  to  bottom  of 
line  as  solid  10-point. 

The  commonest  sizes  of  type  are  the  following: 

Agate,  or  5^-point,  commonly  used  in  newspaper 

369 


370        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


classified  advertising,  and  accepted  as  the  standard  size 
for  measuring  all  advertising,  a  line  of  advertising  being 
figured  as  an  agate  line. 

Nonpareil,  or  6-point,  the  common  body-face  of  news- 
paper reading-matter;  newspapers  also  use  7-point; 

Brevier,  or  8-point,  the  common  magazine  body-face; 

Long  primer  or  10-point,  the  common  body-face ; 

Pica,  or  12-point,  is  the  largest  common  face  for  book- 
type,  and  is  used  as  a  standard  measure  of  width  of 
columns  and  pages,  there  being  six  picas  to  the  inch, 
so  that  a  newspaper  column  two  inches  wide  would  be 
said  to  be  twelve  picas  wide,  and  a  book  page  three  and 
a  half  inches  wide  would  be  said  to  be  twenty-one  picas 
wide. 

The  common  advertising  display  or  black-faced  types 
are  18-point,  24-point,  36-point,  48-point,  and  72-point, 
which  are  respectively  three-twelfths  of  an  inch,  one- 
third  of  an  inch,  half  an  inch,  two-thirds  of  an  inch, 
and  an  inch  high.  Names  are  not  in  common  use  for 
these  larger  sizes,  tho  persisting  in  connection  with  the 
smaller  sizes. 

Body-type  includes  the  smaller  sizes  used  in  the  body 
of  books  or  articles,  and  is  usually  light-faced.  There 
are  two  different  varieties,  old-style  (a  technical  term 
in  no  sense  meaning  old-fashioned),  which  has  the  ter- 
mination of  the  risers  (or  vertical  portions  of  letters 
above  the  main  body)  sloping;  and  modern,  which  has 
the  terminations  of  the  risers  horizontal  and  square. 
The  latter  is  considered  plainer  and  a  little  easier  to 
read,  the  former  more  artistic  in  book-work.  The  type 
used  in  this  book  is  modern. 

Display-type,  bold-face,  or  black-face  is  used  for 
titles  and  headings,  or  for  emphasis,  and  prints  a  bright 
black. 

Electrotypes  are  plates  made  from  type,  that  may  be 


PRINTING 


371 


printed  just  the  same  as  the  original  type.  They  are 
used  when  the  same  type  or  engravings  may  be  printed 
several  times,  as  they  are  more  convenient  to  keep  for 
permanent  use  or  possible  use.  The  type  is  dusted  with 
graphite  and  an  impression  of  the  form  made  in  wax. 
This  wax  mold  is  placed  in  a  bath  where  by  means  of  an 
electric  current  a  thin  shell  of  copper  is  deposited  all 
over  the  face.  This  shell  is  then  backed  up  with  hot 
metal  to  make  the  plate  about  a  pica  thick.  This 
plate  is  mounted  on  wood,  mounted  on  metal,  or  is 
beveled  to  clamp  on  patent  blocks  or  a  patent  base. 
Patent-block  plates  are  used  when  there  are  many 
of  them,  as  for  a  book  which  is  to  be  printed  more 
than  once,  each  printing  being  called  an  edition. 
Electrotypes  are  measured  and  charged  for  by  the  square 
inch,  or  according  to  a  standard  scale  used  by  all  electro- 
typers.  Stereotypes  are  plates  made  from  a  mold  of 
paper  pulp  by  running  melted  metal  into  a  metal  box 
containing  the  mold.  It  is  a  cheap  plate  used  chiefly 
in  newspaper  work. 

Cuts  are  engravings  of  any  kind,  of  which  there  are 
two  varieties  in  commercial  use,  zinc  etchings  from  pen- 
and-ink  drawings  or  any  solid  masses  of  black  and  white 
color,  as,  for  example,  reproduction  of  printing  or  type- 
writing, and  half-tones,  giving  the  effect  of  a  photo- 
graph with  intermediate  tones  (produced  by  photo- 
graphing on  a  copper  plate  through  a  screen  like  mos- 
quito-netting). The  fineness  or  coarseness  of  the 
screen  determines  the  kind  of  paper  on  which  a 
clear  impression  can  be  printed.  For  newspaper  work 
a  screen  with  80  to  100  lines  to  the  inch  (called  an  80- 
or  100-line  screen)  makes  a  coarse  picture;  for  smooth 
or  calendered  book-paper,  cuts  made  with  120-  or  130- 
line  screen  may  be  used,  and  on  enameled  papers  cuts 
up  to  200-line  screens  may  be  used. 


372        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

Papers.  Letter-heads  are  printed  on  special  calen- 
dered papers  called  writing-papers,  which  will  take  ink 
without  blurring.  They  come  usually  in  sheets  17  x  22 
inches,  called  folio  size,  which,  cut  into  quarters,  make 
standard  letter-heads  8^  x  11  inches.  Flat  stock  is  a 
special  class  of  writing-paper  of  common  or  cheaper 
quality,  while  bond  is  another  special  quality  of  paper 
widely  used  for  a  better  class  of  letter-heads.  Bond 
paper  is  more  or  less  transparent,  and  is  adapted  to 
printing  or  writing  only  on  one  side. 

Book  papers  are  used  for  all  kinds  of  circulars  and 
small-type  printing,  and  are,  in  general,  of  four  qualities 
or  characters — print,  the  cheapest  wood-pulp  paper,  used 
for  newspapers;  machine  finish,  made  partly  of  rags, 
well  adapted  to  printing  ordinary  type  and  zinc-etching 
cuts,  but  not  adapted  to  half-tones ;  supercalendered,  or 
S.  &  S.  C,  a  medium  smooth  sheet  on  which  half-tones 
may  be  used,  and  enamel  or  coated  stock,  the  surface  of 
which  is  filled  with  a  preparation  of  clay,  on  which  the 
finest  half-tones  may  be  printed  with  beautiful  results. 
The  commonest  sizes  of  book-papers  are  24  x  36  or  25  x  38 
inches  (a  standard  size),  28  x  42  inches,  32  x  44  inches 
and  the  double  of  the  first  size  or  38  x  50  inches.  Each 
has  three  to  six  different  thicknesses,  indicated  by  the 
weight  or  pounds  to  the  ream.  We  count  500  sheets 
to  a  ream. 

Bristol-board  is  a  thick  paper  used  for  cards,  etc.,  and 
sold  by  the  100  sheets,  most  commonly  22i^  x  281/0  inches. 
Other  varieties  of  thick  colored  papers  are  called  cover- 
papers  and  are  used  for  covers  on  booklets,  usually  made 
same  size  as  bristol-board  or  20  x  25  inches. 

Binding.  "When  books  are  supplied  with  elaborate, 
stiff  covers  the  work  is  called  hard  binding,  the  stiff  cover 
is  called  a  case  or  a  cloth  case,  and  the  work  is  done  at 
a  special  bindery.    Most  printers  do  pamphlet-work, 


PRINTING 


373 


or  binding  of  booklets  in  paper  covers.  The  larger  and 
finer  books  are  sewed  (i.e.,  with  thread),  while  the 
booklets  and  less  expensive  books  are  wire-stitched  (that 
is,  sewed  with  wire).  When  books  are  finished  they  are 
trimmed  or  cut  on  the  edges,  a  number  of  books  at  a 
time,  to  a  certain  size,  which  must  be  given  the  binder 
in  inches.  He  will  ask  for  the  trimmed  size.  An 
eighth  or  quarter  of  an  inch  extra  must  be  left  for 
^^trim." 

Layout  means  a  rough  sketch  showing  how  the  print- 
ing is  to  be  arranged,  with  the  sizes  of  each  part,  etc. 
For  layout  of  a  full-page  advertisement  of  Marshall 
Field  &  Co.,  see  page  315,  and  for  the  advertisement  see 
page  314.  The  drawn  lines  indicate  the  margins  of  the 
different  bodies  of  type,  the  dimensions  being  indicated 
in  inches.  Solid  pencil  lines  indicate  where  the  pictures 
or  cuts  will  go.  A  wavy  line  under  the  headings  in  the 
copy  will  indicate  black  letter  or  display  type.  The 
size  of  the  type  desired  should  be  marked  at  the  side  of 
each  display-line  or  body  of  type. 

A  dummy  is  a  little  book  made  of  blank  paper  show- 
ing the  size,  and  if  possible  the  kind  of  paper  for  the 
main  part  or  body,  and  the  kind  of  paper  for  the  cover. 
Outlines  may  be  drawn  with  a  pencil  to  show  the  out- 
side edges  of  the  type  and  the  margins  or  blank  paper 
around  the  type.  The  bottom  and  outside  margins 
should  always  be  greater  than  the  inside  and  top  mar- 
gins. On  each  page  of  the  dummy  may  be  written  a 
brief  description  of  what  is  to  go  on  that  page. 

Principles  of  type-setting  or  composition.  Only 
two  different  faces  or  kinds  of  type  should  ordinarily 
be  used  in  a  booklet  or  advertisement,  one  kind  of  black 
letter  in  different  sizes  for  the  display  lines,  and  one 
light-faced  body-type  in  different  sizes,  if  necessary,  for 
the  reading-matter.    An  advertisement  with  many  dif- 


374        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ferent  kinds  of  black  type  is  an  atrocity — it  is  *'bad 
composition. ' '  Many  ornaments  and  a  confused  appear- 
ance are  also  bad.  The  display-lines  should  be  short 
and  instantly  read.  If  possible,  avoid  condensed'' 
type — type  that  is  tall  and  thin,  made  purposely  to 
crowd  more  into  a  display-line.  ^^Faf  or  round  type 
is  more  easily  read  and  always  to  be  preferred.  There 
should  be  plenty  of  blank  space  above  and  below  dis- 
play-lines, and  in  the  surrounding  margins,  yet  not  a 
wasteful  amount — just  enough  to  make  everything  clear 
and  sensible-looking. 

Measuring  advertisements.  It  often  falls  to  the  lot 
of  an  assistant  to  measure  up  advertising  to  see  that  it 
is  as  charged  for.  The  entire  space  filled  is  measured 
as  if  it  were  set  solid  in  agate  lines,  including  all  picture 
space  and  borders.  There  are  fourteen  agate  lines  to 
the  inch,  four  inches  to  a  quarter  magazine  page.  A 
newspaper  advertisement  across  two  columns  is  called 
^^double-column''  and  a  double- width  line  is  measured 
as  two  lines.  "When  advertisements  are  set  by  printers 
they  are  measured  by  the  thousand  ems.  Take  the  total 
number  of  lines  from  top  to  bottom,  and  also  find  the 
number  of  line  spaces  or  ems  from  side  to  side.  Mul- 
tiply these  together,  taking  the  next  highest  thousands 
as  the  amount  of  the  composition,  written  as  so  many 
*^M."  Pictures  are  counted  as  type  unless  they  fill 
full  pages. 

Measuring  printing.  The  typesetting  is  measured  by 
the  thousand  ems  of  the  size  of  type  actually  used  (not 
as  agate  except  in  the  case  of  advertisements  in  many 
different  sizes  of  type),  by  use  of  a  type-scale  marked  off 
for  each  different  size  of  type  up  to  12-point.  Display 
heads  are  counted  as  if  set  solid  with  the  body-type. 

Press  work  refers  to  the  impression  on  the  printing- 
press,  and  is  counted  as  so  many  thousand  impressions 


PRINTING 


375 


of  each  form.  A  form  is  a  number  of  pages  locked  up 
together  in  one  chase  or  iron  frame.  Forms  usually 
have  eight,  sixteen,  or  thirty-two  pages,  and  each  group 
of  pages  of  that  number  (whatever  number  can  be  run 
on  the  press  at  one  time)  is  called  a  ^^form."  A  book 
of  196  pages  would  have  six  forms  of  thirty-two  pages 
each,  and  one  thousand  complete  books  would  be  counted 
as  ^''6  M  impressions"  (six  thousand  impressions). 
There  is  an  extra  charge  on  the  first  thousand  impres- 
sions of  each  form  to  cover  ^  4ock-up ' '  (locking  the 
pages  up  in  the  chase  with  the  correct  margins)  and  the 

make-ready,"  that  is,  getting  the  type  to  print  clear 
and  sharp  all  over  by  means  of  paper    overlays"  and 

underlays"  on  the  cylinder  of  the  press.  Gordon 
presses  are  small  presses  for  cards,  letter-heads,  etc., 
and  usually  take  any  printing  not  over  10  x  12  inches 
Larger  sheets   are   printed   on      cylinder  presses." 

Gordon  press"  jobs  cost  about  half  as  much  for  the 
presswork  as    cylinder  press"  jobs. 

There  is  also  a  charge  for  cutting  or  trimming  the 
paper  on  the  paper-cutter,  and  of  course  a  charge  for 
printing  the  cover  and  for  folding  and  binding.  In 
laying  out  the  form  allow  one-eighth  to  one-quarter  of 
an  inch  extra  paper  for  the  ^Hrim." 

Preparing  Copy  for  Printer  and  Reading  Proof 

Copy  for  the  printer  should  be  written  only  on  one 
side  of  the  paper.  As  a  rule  it  should  be  typewritten, 
but  clear  handwriting  is  not  objectionable. 

"Words  or  phrases  intended  to  be  set  in  italics  should 
be  underscored  once,  in  small  capitals  twice,  and  in  full 
capitals  three  times,  while  a  wavy  line  below  indicates 
black-letter. 

If  the  paragraphs  are  not  distinct  they  should  be 
marked  by  the  sign  of  the  paragraph  (1|),  and  this  sign 


376        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


in  the  middle  of  any  solid  writing  will  cause  the  printer 
to  make  a  paragraph  at  that  point  without  other  direc- 
tion. If  a  paragraph  is  not  wanted  where  the  writing 
has  been  indented  for  a  paragraph,  draw  a  line  to  con- 
nect the  last  word  of  the  preceding  with  the  first  word 
of  the  next,  and  at  the  left  write  ^^No  ^f."  If  a  period 
is  not  distinct,  draw  a  circle  around  it — a  small  circle 
not  over  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

See  that  the  spelling,  punctuation,  and  capitalization 
are  exactly  right.  It  costs  a  good  deal  of  money  to 
change  these  things  on  the  proof.  It  is  much  cheaper 
to  edit  the  manuscript  in  advance. 

On  the  corner  of  the  manuscript,  top  of  first  page, 
indicate  the  size  of  type  in  which  it  is  to  be  set,  as  "8- 
point,"  ^'lO-point,''  etc.,  and  whether  ^ beaded''  or 
solid."  If  possible,  mark  at  the  ends  of  the  heading 
lines  the  style  or  size  of  type  in  which  the  headings  are  to 
be  set.   Also  mark  the  width  in  inches  or  picas. 

Observe  that  words  in  capital  letters  are  harder  to 
read  than  when  set  in  capitals  and  small  letters,  or 
upper  and  lower  case."  If  headings  are  marked  ^^u. 
and  1.  c."  they  will  be  set  in  upper  and  lower  case, 
even  if  written  on  the  typewriter  in  capitals.  "Words 
to  go  in  all  capitals  can  be  circled  and  marked  ^^caps." 
or  underscored  with  three  lines. 

A  blank  paper  dummy,  folded  up  and  cut  to  the  size, 
with  writing  to  indicate  the  length  of  the  pages,  as  well 
as  the  width,  places  for  the  pictures,  etc.,  kind  of  paper 
to  be  used  for  body  and  cover,  will  also  be  a  good 
addition. 

The  first  proof  comes  back  in  long  strips,  called 
^^galley-proofs."  When  the  corrections  made  on  this 
proof  have  been  inserted,  a  better  and  clearer  proof 
usually  is  supplied,  called  ^ ^page-proof"  (if  the  matter 
is  to  be  made  up  into  pages).    If  this  is  correct,  each 


PRINTING 


377 


page  should  be  marked  in  the  lower  left-hand  corner 
^^0.  K./'  with  the  name  of  the  person  signing,  or  initials. 

Printers  use  certain  abbreviations,  signs,  and  symbols 
in  marking  proof  with  which  the  ordinary  person  should 
be  familiar.    The  chief  are  the  following : 

caps.,  capital  letters,  also  indicated  by  three  lines 
below. 

u.  c,  upper  case,  capital  letters. 
1.  c,  lower  case,  small  letters. 

u.  and  1.  c,  upper  and  lower  case,  the  first  letter 
a  capital  and  the  rest  small  letters. 

sm.  caps,  or  s.  c.  (or  two  lines  below),  small  capitals. 

ital.  (not  beginning  with  capital),  or  underscored 
once,  italic. 

rom.  (not  written  with  capital),  roman,  the  ordinary 
straight  letters,  as  opposed  to  italic. 

w.  1,  wrong  font  (a  face  or  cut  of  type  not  like  the 
rest). 

stet,  Latin  for  '^let  it  stand.''  "Words  to  remain  are 
underscored  with  a  dotted  line. 

A  line  drawn  down  through  a  capital  letter  indicates  it 
is  to  be  made  small. 

tr.,  transpose,  or  change  the  order. 

^  (dele),  take  out,  placed  in  the  margin  when  a 
letter  or  word  is  to  be  removed. 

C^,  turn  the  letter  the  other  side  up,  placed  in  the 
margin  when  a  letter  is  upside  down. 

A  sloping  line  is  placed  to  the  left  of  any  letter,  word, 
or  mark  that  is  to  go  into  the  text,  but  a  mere  symbol 
or  direction  should  not  have  any  line  beside  it. 

The  period,  however,  has  a  circle  about  it,  while  apos- 
trophes, quotation-marks,  and  superior  figures  that  are 
to  appear  at  the  upper  edge  of  the  line  of  type  are 
written  in  the  top  of  an  angle  (V)  or  V.    Inferior  fig- 


378        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ures  or  signs  specially  indicated  as  going  below  the  line 
of  type  are  placed  in  an  inverted  A . 

^  means  insert  more  space. 

I  I  em  quad,  the  space  of  a  square  of  the  type  used. 
^  means  somewhat  less  space  between  words. 
(  )  means  close  up  space. 
X'  a  cross  means  a  broken  letter. 

Brackets  at  left  or  right,  top  or  bottom,  mean  ^'move 
the  type  up  to  the  line  of  the  main  line  of  the  bracket. ' ' 

Hyphens  and  dashes  are  placed  between  two  sloping 
lines.  The  length  of  a  dash  may  be  indicated  by  writing 
under  it  the  letter  m  (meaning  a  dash  the  length  of  a 
square  of  the  type),  or  2-em  or  3-em  (the  latter  being  the 
more  correct  way  of  writing  the  letter). 

^  a  caret  indicates  where  something  left  out  is  to  be 
inserted. 

means  to  push  down  a  quad  or  space  that  shows  in 
the  type. 

'^Out,  see  copy,''  indicates  an  omission  too  great  to 
write  in,  reference  being  made  to  the  original  copy 
where  the  omitted  words  are  bracketed. 

^  a  curved  line  over  two  letters  indicates  that  they 
are  to  be  printed  as  a  diphthong  or  single  character. 

Straight  lines  at  the  side  usually  indicate  that  type 
should  be  straightened  up,  or  the  margin  straightened. 

Qy  or  ?  written  by  the  proofreader  indicates  that 
there  may  be  an  error  and  the  author  should  verify. 


PRINTING 


379 


Wnamaker,  Carson,  Field  8c  Co 
Wholesale  Department 


O      We  must  go  aft/r  the  firemen  .  V  i 
CtcuO  ?1?  masse ,y\^what  the  advertising  j      /       .  ^ 
men  call  ^ass  ^lay.   Read  the 
I    bookletiHOW  TO  WRITE  AD-  U^-xO  '  Z// 
SING  LETTERS,  page 

a  serjes  of  ^  /  ^  / 

thft    nrintftH  / 


—    VERTISING  LETTERS,  page 

I  23,  section  on  mass 
^7      Please  prepare  a 
/v  three  letter^  and  the  printed 

/  matter  to  go  with  them?  '  tP/ 

This  will  consit  of  an  8— p^  ^lo  lydAfi^l 
booklet  with  cover  to  go  with^ — ^  0  '  \[\ 
/firstVth^  letter,  letter  sheet  of  '  • 

M  testimonials^  one  or  two  good    .  . 
n^nes^to  go  with  second,  letter^^/  C  .  >  / 
/and  a  picture  showing  our  offer  q  / 
/  at  a  glance  to  go  with  the  finalj^.  cT 
'     Feature  the  word^then^^m^y  \/  ^ 


printed  with^^dip^hongw  ^^^^ 

This  under3^ear  at  $2  for  a 
unionsuit  is  positively  the  best  4* 
value  obtainable,  as  the  gar- 
ment is  actually  more  than  h^^lf  Q 
silk*   Make  a  strong  appeal  on  J) 
this^and  let  us  se^if  we  cannot  ^*  a  », 
getSa  start  with  these  people  on  cr^  \T 
on  somethnig  better  than  th^y  'Viy  + 
have  been  using. 


380        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Questions  on  Printing 

1.  What  is  composition?  Presswork?  What  two 
kinds  of  binding  ? 

2.  What  kind  of  type  is  used  for  ordinary  job-print- 
ing? For  poster  work?  For  newspaper  and  magazine 
work?  How  are  linotype  machines  operated,  what  are 
the  matrices,  and  how  is  the  type  cast?  How  are  mono- 
type machines  operated? 

3.  Explain  the  point-system  of  measuring  type. 

4.  What  are  leads? 

5.  Mention  the  commonest  sizes  of  type  and  tell  what 
each  is  chiefly  used  for  ?  What  are  the  advertising  dis- 
play sizes  of  type  ? 

6.  What  is  body-type?  Old-style?  Modern?  Bold- 
face?   What  are  the  risers? 

7.  What  are  electrotypes?  Explain  how  they  are 
made,  what  the  shell  is,  the  backing,  and  the  mounting. 
What  are  patent-block  plates?  How  are  stereotype 
plates  made  ?    How  are  both  of  these  charged  ? 

8.  What  is  an  edition  of  a  book? 

9.  What  are  cuts?  Zinc  etchings?  Half-tones? 
How  are  half-tones  made?  Illustrate  by  examples,  if 
possible,  the  differences  in  ^'screen." 

10.  What  is  calendered  paper  and  what  is  it  used  for  ? 
Illustrate?  What  is  folio  size,  and  how  many  letter- 
heads will  a  sheet  make  ?  Distinguish  between  flat  stock 
and  bond  paper. 

11.  What  are  book-papers?  How  do  they  differ  from 
writing-papers?  Illustrate  print,  machine-finish,  super- 
calendered,  and  coated  papers.  What  are  the  common 
sizes  of  book-papers,  and  how  many  pages  of  this  book 
would  each  make  ? 

12.  For  what  is  bristol-board  used?  What  are  the 
common  sizes  of  cover-paper? 


PRINTING 


381 


13.  Illustrate  the  differences  between  hard  binding 
and  pamphlet  work.  What  is  the  difference  between 
wire-stitching  and  sewing?  What  is  meant  by  the 
trimmed  size  of  a  book  ? 

14.  Illustrate  the  way  in  which  display  advertise- 
ments are  laid  out. 

15.  Show  how  a  dummy  is  made  up  for  a  booklet. 

16.  What  are  the  leading  principles  of  type-compo- 
sition? Illustrate  these  by  examples  of  both  good  and 
bad  composition.  Illustrate  the  difference  between  fat 
and  condensed  type. 

17.  What  is  the  basis  for  measuring  advertisements. 
Make  up  a  type-scale  from  a  foot-rule  by  working  out 
the  point-system.  How  is  printing  measured  ?  Measure 
the  type-composition  on  this  page  with  the  type-scale 
you  have  made. 

18.  What  two  kinds  of  press-work  are  there,  and  for 
what  is  each  used?  How  is  a  form  made  up?  What 
are  impressions  ?  How  would  an  edition  of  3,000  copies 
of  an  ordinary  book  of  196  pages  be  made  up  and 
handled  in  the  pressroom,  how  many  forms  would  it 
make,  what  size  of  paper  would  be  most  economical,  and 
how  many  impressions  would  there  be?  For  what  are 
Gordon  presses  used  ?  What  other  charges  are  made  on  a 
printing  job  besides  composition,  paper,  and  press-work? 

19.  Make  a  list  of  the  rules  for  preparing  copy  for 
the  printer,  stating  them  very  briefly,  and  numbering 
them  in  order. 

20.  Explain  the  meaning  or  significance  of  each  mark 
used  in  the  model  proof. 

Advertising  Assignment  VII 

First,  let  us  take  any  manuscript  that  might  be  printed 
as  a  booklet  and  prepare  it  for  the  printer,  making  a 
dummy  of  blank  paper,  indicating  the  best  type  to  use. 


382        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


size  of  page,  probable  number  of  pages,  title-page,  head- 
lines, etc. 

Second,  let  ns  take  a  page  in  a  magazine,  a  page  in 
this  book,  and  a  page  advertisement,  and  indicate  on 
each  the  different  sizes  and  styles  of  type  used,  and 
measure  up  the  type-composition  on  each. 

Third,  let  us  prepare  and  lay  out  a  series  of  not  less 
than  three  advertisements  for  the  business  we  have  been 
studying  chiefly,  one  a  magazine  page,  one  a  quarter 
page,  and  one  an  inch  for  newspaper  use. 

Retail  Advertising  Assignment 

From  concerns  like  John  Wanamaker  in  New  York, 
the  National  Cloak  and  Suit  Co.  of  New  York,  or  Mandel 
Bros,  of  Chicago,  we  can  obtain  fall  or  spring  catalogs  of 
women's  wear,  and  with  this  text-book  on  department 
store  goods  we  can  prepare  a  retail  page  advertisement, 
writing  the  copy,  planning  the  cuts,  and  laying  out  the 
advertisement,  as  well  as  properly  preparing  the  whole 
for  the  printer. 


PRINTING 


383 


MODERN 
TYPE  FACES 


Caslon  Old  Style 

A  Beautiful  Body  Type 

10  v>omt 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs' 

8  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 


Caslon  Bold 

14  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  L 

10  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

*This  sentence  is  used  by  type  designers  because  it  contains  every 
letter  of  the  alphabet  and  shows  how  they  look  in  word  groups. 


384        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 
Caslon  Italic 

10  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

8  point 

Pack  my  Box  ixjith  Fi've  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 


Cheltenham 

One  of  the  most  popular  modern  faces 
It  has  a  shoulder  that  makes  10  pt.  look  about  as  large  as  full-faced  8  pt. 

12  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

10  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 


Cheltenham  Bold 

14  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liq 

24  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Fiv 


Cheltenham  Bold  Italic 

8  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

14  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liq 


PRINTING  385 
Bold  Antique 

A  Good  Advertisement  Type 

6  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  liquor  Jngs 

6  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 


Charter  Oak 

18  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five 

30  point 

Pack  my  Box 


Jensen 

Good  Caps;  Lower-case  a  Little  Too  Ornate 

8  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

12  point 

PACK  MY  BOX  WITH  FIVE  DOZEN 


Kenilworth 

A  Lighter,  Smaller  Face  Than  Jensen 

8  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

18  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  L 


386        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 
Blanchard 

An  Artistic  Advertisement  Face  In  All  Sizes 

18  point 

PacK  my  Box  with  F 

36  point 

Pack  my  B 


Blanchard  Condensed 

12  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

24  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Fi 


DeVinne 

Good  Face,  But  Old  Fashioned 

6  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

18  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  D 


Tudor 

Plainer  Than  Old  English 

10  point 

IPacft  my  Box  wttb  five  2>03en  Xlquor  SnQs 

24  point 


PRINTING  381 
Engravers  Bold 

For  Letterheads 

6  point 

PACK  MY  BOX  WITH  FIVE  DOZEN  LIQUOR 

12  point  No.  2 

PACK  MY  BOX  WITH  FI 


Franklin  Gothic 

Excellent  For  Newspaper  Heads 


36  point 


Pack  my  Box 


48  point 


Pack  Box 


Square  Gothic 

Very  Plain 

9  point 

PACK  MY  BOX  WITH  FIVE  DOZEN 


12  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen 


388        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 
Condensed  Gothic 

Light  Faced — to  be  Used  Only  in  Case  of  Absolute 
Necessity,  Because  Hard  to  Read 

12  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

36  point 

PACK  MY  BOX  WITH 


Lining  Old  Style 

6  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

8  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jtigs 


Modern 

4^  point  •pa.c^  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

5^  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugra 

6  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Juga 


Machine  Antique 

8  point  * 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 

10  point 

Pack  my  Box  with  Five  Dozen  Liquor  Jugs 


390        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Zinc  Etching  of  Pen  Drawing 


5i  point — Agate.  Smallest  newspaper  type  and  standard  for 
measuring  advertisements. 

6  point — Nonpariel.    Regular  body  type  for  city  newspapers, 

large  face. 

7  point — Minion.    Second  size  for  newspapers. 

8  point — Brevier.    Standard  magazine  face ;  smallest  face  that 

should  be  used  in  circulars,  and  should  be  large  faced 
at  that. 

9  point — Bourgeois.    Seldom  used. 

10  point — Long  Primer.    Standard  book  face. 

11  point — Small  Pica.    Second  book  face. 

12  point — Pica.    Largest  book  face. 

For  samples  of  5§  point,  see  want  advertising  columns  of  stand- 
ard newspapers. 

For  samples  of  6  and  7  point,  see  reading  columns  of  standard 
newspapers. 

For  samples  of  8  point,  see  any  standard  magazine. 

For  samples  of  10  point,  see  any  standard  bound  book  ;  my 
pamphlet  on  Paper,  Printing,  and  Advertising  is  in  10 
point  leaded. 

Count  14  agate  lines  to  the  inch  ;  7  words  to  the  newspaper 
column  (width  13  picas);  8  words  magazine  column 
(width  15  picas). 

In  reckoning  the  space  given  copy  will  occupy,  reckon  22  words 
to  the  square  inch  for  8  point  solid,  20  words  if  leaded  ; 
19  words  to  square  inch  10  point  solid,  17  words  if  leaded. 

In  measuring  type  by  the  ems,  in  general  count  4  ems  to  a  word. 
Leads  are  usually  2  points  thick,  so  8  point  leaded  will  be 
as  many  lines  as  10  point  solid,  but  more  words  in  a  line. 


PART  V 
PEESONAL  SALESMANSHIP 


391 


I 


PERSONALITY 

Practically  all  business  must  start  with  personal 
salesmanship.  The  man  at  the  head  of  the  business 
must  go  to  see  people  and  get  them  to  cooperate  with 
him  in  some  fashion  to  establish  his  business.  The  pro- 
fessional man,  tho  he  can  not  ask  any  one  directly  to 
become  his  patient  or  client,  wouldn't  have  any  patients 
or  clients  if  he  did  not  find  a  way  to  secure  their  co- 
operation. Every  person  who  gets  a  job  must  go  to  an 
employer  and  exercise  the  power  of  personality  to  im- 
press the  possible  employer  or  he  will  never  get  started 
in  life. 

The  power  of  personality  is  the  foundation  of  sales- 
manship. Mr.  J.  S.  Knox,  in  his  book  on  Business 
Efficiency,  says,  ^^I  heard  Mr.  Bryan  lecture,  and  I  said, 
*'He  has  a  most  striking  personality.'  I  asked  myself 
the  question,  ^What  is  personality?'  And  these  thoughts 
came  into  my  mind :  ^  He  is  kind,  courageous,  diplomatic, 
aggressive,  honest,  enthusiastic,  and  he  seems  to  possess 
an  unconquerable  will. '  "  I  do  not  believe  that  a  better 
definition  of  personality  could  be  given,  nor  could  the 
manner  of  stating  the  case  be  more  clear-cut  or  com- 
prehensible. 

He  is  kind:  All  the  world  is  won  by  a  sympathetic 
attitude  toward  our  fellows,  and  the  person  who  hasn't 
a  kindly  and  sympathetic  manner  will  not  win,  for  in 
modern  competition  we  get  business  almost  exclusively 
by  winning  it. 

393 


394       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


He  is  courageous:  No  man  can  do  anything  unless 
he  thinks  he  can,  and  above  all  in  appealing  to  other 
people  the  lack  of  confidence  makes  a  bad  impression  at 
the  very  start.  Why  should  any  one  believe  in  what  you 
offer  v^hen  you  don't  believe  yourself,  or  when  you  don't 
have  the  courage  to  show  by  your  fighting  attitude  that 
you  believe? 

He  is  diplomatic :  Flies  are  not  caught  with  vinegar, 
but  they  are  caught  with  molasses.  Too  much  molasses 
in  business  is  a  bad  thing,  but  the  tactful  approach,  free 
from  all  thorny  excrescences,  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  man  who  wants  to  handle  people  with  something 
like  ease  and  freedom  from  annoyance. 

He  is  aggressive :  The  salesman  above  all  can  not  be 
a  timid  or  retiring  person.  In  this  American  common- 
wealth he  must  go  after  what  he  wants  and  go  hard. 
Of  course,  in  going  hard,  he  must  still  be  diplomatic. 
But  energy,  aggressiveness,  are  indispensable  qualities 
of  a  successful  salesman. 

He  is  honest :  In  the  old  days  there  was  a  rule  in  law 
which  read,  ^^Let  the  buyer  beware."  In  these  days  our 
business  men  have  seen  that  the  big  profits  come  from 
repeat  orders  from  those  who  are  pleased  because  they 
have  been  treated  honestly.  Moreover,  nothing  wins  like 
sincerity  of  manner,  and  sincerity  of  manner  comes  from 
sincerity  and  honesty  of  heart.  The  question  is  no 
longer  a  moral  one  but  one  of  common-sense  psychology. 

He  is  enthusiastic :  The  chronic  condition  of  the  buyer 
is  apathy,  indifference,  a  condition  of  unawakened  feel- 
ings. The  salesman  must  light  the  fires  of  enthusiasm, 
and  he  can  do  this  only  if  he  has  his  own  fire  burning 
briskly.  The  book-salesman  who  remarked,  '^AU  I  do  is 
to  go  around  and  enthuse  'em  up"  was  unquestionably 
right.  His  use  of  enthuse"  may  not  have  been  correct, 
but  the  idea  back  of  his  statement  was  unquestionably 


PERSONALITY 


395 


right.  His  chief  usefulness  was  in  arousing  the  en- 
thusiasm of  his  indifferent  customers.  When  their  en- 
thusiasm was  up  they  would  buy  anyway. 

He  seems  to  possess  an  unconquerable  will :  Business 
is  a  stiff  game,  a  battle  which  may  often  appear  dis- 
couraging. The  only  thing  that  will  carry  you  through 
to  victory,  and  carry  your  customer  through,  is  your 
unconquerable  will.  It  is  said  the  Englishman  in  battle 
never  knows  when  he  is  beaten.  No  doubt  the  same 
quality  of  will  has  made  him  the  leader  of  the  world's 
commerce.  The  American  may  surpass  him  by  the  ad- 
dition of  more  intelligence  and  better  methods;  but  he 
can  not  get  along  unless  he,  too,  has  the  unconquerable 
will  that  fights  to  the  finish. 

Can  the  power  of  personality  be  developed  by  culti- 
vation ? 

Assuredly  it  can.  We  can  see  how  by  examining  each 
of  these  elements  a  little  more  in  detail. 

Kindness  will  inevitably  come  to  those  who  realize 
that  all  business  is  service  to  the  customer.  Until  we 
have  the  attitude  of  mind  which  results  from  understand- 
ing this,  and  set  out  in  our  selling  to  serve  the  public, 
thinking  of  our  work  as  service  to  others  rather  than  a 
selfish  grabbing  of  something  we  ourselves  want,  we  will 
gain  no  success.  When  we  get  the  point  of  view,  the 
attitude  of  mind  becomes  natural,  almost  inevitable. 

Courage  is  more  the  result  of  knowing  what  we  are 
doing  than  anything  else.  The  man  who  knows  what 
he  is  talking  about,  understands  his  goods  thoroughly, 
and  also  has  particularly  studied  the  needs  of  the  cus- 
tomer he  sets  out  to  serve,  will  soon  lose  his  natural 
timidity.  We  are  all  timid  about  the  unknown.  Those 
who  are  naturally  diffident  will  often  blossom  out  into 
the  most  successful  salesman  when  they  have  mastered 
the  underlying  factors — when  they  really  KNOW  what 


396        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


they  are  trying  to  do.  It  may  require  longer  for  some 
than  for  others  to  get  into  a  condition  where  they  can 
show  the  proper  courage,  but  it  will  come  to  all  in  time. 
Besides,  if  we  set  our  teeth  and  say  to  ourselves,  ^*I 
will ! ' '  our  strength  of  heart  will  grow.  It  is  the  thing 
on  which  all  success  in  life  is  built  anyway,  and  we  must 
cultivate  it  or  we  will  end  total  failures. 

Diplomacy  may  be  a  hard  thing  for  some  people  who 
are  naturally  very  direct  and  blunt;  but  directness 
softened  down  a  little  and  restrained  is  often  the  very 
finest  kind  of  diplomacy.  Certain  it  is  that  diplomacy 
is  something  that  can  be  learned. 

Aggressiveness  is  partly  a  matter  of  the  energy  born 
in  us,  but,  like  courage,  it  is  largely  a  matter  also  of 
knowing  what  we  are  about.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
too  much  aggressiveness.  The  world  is  full  of  quiet 
people  who  like  quiet  manners,  and  the  quiet-mannered 
persons  can  often  succeed  amazingly  with  the  quiet-man- 
nered class  of  customers.  And,  indeed,  all  of  us  can 
throw  off  our  laziness  and  make  ourselves  work  hard — 
we  can  develop  the  right  kind  of  aggressiveness,  and 
what  we  can't  develop  we  can  get  along  without  by 
selecting  for  our  field  the  less  aggressive  portions  of 
the  public. 

Honesty,  surely,  is  something  no  one  should  doubt  his 
ability  to  master.  Yet  it  is  not  only  honesty  but  the 
appearance  of  honesty — a  simple,  sincere,  straightfor- 
ward manner,  open  and  frank,  that  in  its  very  essence 
produces  confidence  in  others.  But  if  we  see  that 
honesty  really  is  business  common  sense,  we  can  make 
dealing  fairly  a  principle  of  business  as  well  as  a  moral 
principle,  and  when  we  look  at  a  thing  from  two  points 
of  view  we  always  get  a  stronger  hold  on  it.  Few  people 
are  intentionally  dishonest,  but  many  are  a  little  loose, 
a  little  careless,  and  in  that  way  they  get  the  reputation 


PERSONALITY 


397 


of  being  bad  people  to  do  business  with.  We  ought  to 
make  a  serious  business  of  being  scrupulously  honest. 
First,  if  we  make  a  contract  or  agreement  we  should 
fulfil  it  exactly  and  completely  in  every  detail.  In  ad- 
dition to  that,  if  we  make  an  agreement  that  isn't  quite 
fair  to  the  other  fellow,  even  if  we  have  legal  right  on 
our  side,  we  ought  to  correct  it,  to  the  point  of  being  a 
little  generous,  if  necessary.  It  is  the  best  advertising 
we  are  likely  to  get,  and  others  do  to  us  very  much  as 
we  do  to  them.  Any  man  who  gives  service  will  get 
paid  sooner  or  later  if  the  service  is  right  and  he  does 
not  actually  neglect  his  own  interests. 

Enthusiasm  is  contagious,  just  like  the  measles,  and  if 
we  want  other  people  to  get  enthusiastic  over  our  goods 
or  our  services,  we  must  first  be  chock-full  of  that  en- 
thusiasm ourselves.  Nor  should  we  be  content  with  a 
mild  enthusiasm.  We  want  a  whirlwind  enthusiasm,  a 
feeling  that  sweeps  us  on  and  everybody  else  with  us. 
No  other  one  thing  will  do  so  much  to  make  us  good 
salesmen,  successful  salesmen.  First  it  will  carry  us 
over  the  hard  preparatory  work  we  ourselves  must  do, 
it  will  make  us  master  our  goods  and  our  customers  and 
ourselves ;  and  then  it  will  infect  all  with  whom  we  come 
in  contact,  just  sweeping  them  off  their  feet. 

Unless  a  man  can  honestly  be  enthusiastic  over  what 
he  has  to  sell,  he  ought  not  to  be  in  that  business.  Every 
business  should  have  some  monopoly,  some  superiority 
over  every  other  business  in  that  field.  When  we  feel 
that  we  are  actually  at  the  top,  we  do  not  have  to 
restrain  or  modify  our  language,  we  can  talk  in  super- 
latives and  do  so  with  real  conviction.  The  superiority 
over  all  others  may  be  slight;  but  whatever  is  our 
monopoly  is  what  we  have  to  sell,  that  is  the  thing  we 
want  to  concentrate  all  our  force  on.  Any  man  who 
can  find  the  supreme  merit  in  what  he  is  selling  can 


398        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


easily  develop  enthusiasm.  If  you  can  not  rouse  enthu- 
siasm, examine  yourself  and  see  if  you  are  not  con- 
vinced that  somebody  else  has  something  a  great  deal 
better  than  what  you  are  offering.  When  you  realize 
that  you  are  actually  in  the  second  class  it  is  about  time 
to  quit  and  look  for  a  job  where  you  can  honestly  feel 
you  are  supplied  with  at  least  a  few  supreme  merits. 
There  may  be  many  inferiorities,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  be  best  in  all  respects;  but  if  we  have  enough  for 
talking-points  we  should  throw  all  our  force  on  those  and 
in  that  way  develop  the  conviction  and  the  enthusiasm 
which  will  carry  us  to  success. 

Last  of  all,  the  unconquerable  will  is  essential  in 
salesmanship.  Everything  in  life  is  hard,  but  salesman- 
ship is  especially  hard,  for  it  can  be  disagreeable  and 
difficult  in  many  different  ways  at  the  same  time.  No 
person  ever  became  a  good  salesman  who  had  not  a 
powerful  will  that  not  only  could  surmount  the  obstacles 
but  bring  the  customer  to  the  point  of  decision  in  the 
closing  of  orders.  In  these  days  the  chief  work  of  sales- 
men is  to  close  orders,  since  modern  advertising  is  doing 
most  of  the  missionary  work.  "Without  the  will  that 
compels,  no  person  can  be  a  success  in  selling ;  but  most  of 
us  have  will  enough  if  we  think  we  have.  Will-power 
is  latent  in  most  of  us.  It  needs  to  be  brought  out. 
Sometimes  it  is  hidden  under  the  rubbish  of  laziness :  in 
such  cases  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  learn  to  like  to  work 
(and  it  is  something  all  children  ought  to  be  compelled 
to  learn  just  as  they  learn  their  letters,  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic)  ;  sometimes  it  is  sapped  by  groundless 
fear:  if  we  dig  more  deeply  into  our  subject,  go  in  spite 
of  our  timidity  to  see  people  till  we  learn  by  experience 
that  they  won't  bite  us  but  will  listen  patiently  to  most 
that  we  have  to  say,  we  will  soon  get  over  that  ground- 
less fear ;  or  it  may  be  destroyed  by  the  feeling  that  our 


PERSONALITY 


399 


business  is  not  quite  honest:  in  that  case  we  want  to 
get  into  an  honest  business  which  has  a  few  good  points 
of  monopoly  that  will  rouse  our  enthusiasm,  and  we  will 
find  that  will-power  will  follow  naturally  and  inevitably 
in  the  train  of  enthusiasm. 

The  Advantages  of  Having  Good  Clothes 

The  writer  is  personally  acquainted  with  the  sales- 
manager  of  the  New  England  territory  of  a  national 
corporation.  He  started  as  a  stock-boy  in  a  wholesale 
house,  went  from  Boston  to  New  York,  and  at  the  end 
of  five  years  was  let  out  through  the  closing  of  the  New 
York  branch.  The  head  of  the  business  had  taken  an 
interest  in  him  and  told  him  of  a  good  job  as  traveling 
salesman  with  the  concern  with  which  he  has  ever  since 
been  connected,  and  he  got  it. 

^^Now,"  said  the  manager,  '^you  want  to  make  a 
success  of  your  new  job,  and  I  am  going  to  tell  you  how 
to  do  it.  You  have  worked  your  way  up  from  the  farm 
and  never  in  your  life  had  a  decent  suit  of  clothes.  Go 
over  to  Dunn  the  tailor,  and  have  him  make  you  an 
eighty-dollar  suit,  an  eighty-dollar  overcoat,  and  then 
get  furnishings  to  match." 

'^That  would  cost  two  hundred  dollars,  and  I  haven't 
fifty  dollars  in  the  world." 

'^111  tell  him  to  give  you  credit." 

The  young  man  hesitated  a  little,  but  took  the  advice. 
With  his  tailor-made  clothes  in  place  of  his  baggy  ready- 
mades  he  started  out  on  the  road  feeling  like  the  biggest 
salesman  on  the  payroll.  He  got  all  the  points  he  could. 
He  knew  he  had  to  get  the  money  as  soon  as  possible 
with  which  to  pay  for  those  clothes,  and  he  was  deter- 
mined to  succeed. 

He  was  sent  to  do  missionary  work  in  new  territory 
where  the  firm  didn't  expect  many  orders.    With  his 


400        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

new  suit  and  his  new  overcoat  and  his  new  mind  and 
bearing  to  correspond,  the  young  man  took  orders  which 
showed  a  selling  expense  of  only  5  per  cent.,  so  he  not 
only  paid  for  himself  as  he  went  and  made  a  profit, 
but  did  the  missionary  work  without  any  cost  to  the 
house.  It  was  a  surprize  to  him  and  to  all  his  friends, 
but  it  was  the  turning-point  in  his  life.  He  now  wears 
thirty-dollar  suits  which  look  as  well  as  his  eighty-dollar 
suit  did  at  the  first;  but  it  was  worth  two  hundred 
dollars  to  find  out  what  it  means  to  be  well  drest.  Of 
course  he  had  to  keep  his  eighty-dollar  suit  prest  all  the 
time,  and  his  shoes  shined,  and  his  linen  clean.  The 
habit  once  formed  has  stuck  to  him  through  life.  Moral : 
the  outside  and  the  inside  go  together.  Be  sure  your 
outside  is  right  as  well  as  your  inside,  for  if  one  is 
wrong  the  other  is  bound  to  be,  which  ever  way  you 
look  at  it. 

The  Advantage  of  Having  Good  Manners 

Mr.  Knox,  in  his  book,  Business  Efficiency,"  tells  of 
a  young  man  who  was  highly  recommended  for  a  position 
as  salesman  with  a  very  high-grade  concern.  He  had 
enterprise,  enthusiasm,  and  apparently  all  of  the  quali- 
fications of  a  good  salesman.  The  head  of  the  business 
invited  him  to  his  club  to  lunch  and  talk  the  matter  over. 

The  young  man  tucked  his  napkin  under  his  chin,  ate 
rather  fast,  and  finished  long  before  his  host,  and  finally 
tipped  his  chair  back  and  began  to  pick  his  teeth  and 
then  to  clean  his  finger-nails  with  his  knife. 

'^What  sort  of  impression  would  that  fellow  make  on 
one  of  my  big  customers  if  he  should  be  invited  out  to 
lunch  with  him?"  Bad  manners  were  his  one  defect; 
but  one  defect  is  always  enough  to  condemn  any  man. 
A  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link. 


PERSONALITY 


401 


The  Advantage  of  Having  a  Good  Breath 

The  breath  may  seem  a  small  thing,  but  it  has  prob- 
ably killed  more  business  than  any  one  other  little  thing. 

First,  a  foul  breath  is  offensive  to  many  people.  A 
dentist  simply  will  have  no  clients  if  he  allows  himself 
to  have  a  bad  breath.  A  salesman  may  kill  a  good 
prospect  in  the  same  way  by  giving  him  a  whiff  of  a  bad 
breath. 

Bad  breath  is  due  largely  to  lack  of  exercise  and  im- 
proper eating.  Most  men  get  enough  exercise  a  part  of 
the  time ;  but  when  they  come  in  from  the  road  or  have 
a  holiday  they  take  none  at  all,  and  a  week  of  that  is 
enough  to  give  any  person  a  bad  breath.  Bad  breath  is 
also  due  to  a  poor  diet,  a  diet  too  rich,  or  what  might 
seem  a  good  diet  which  includes  something  that  doesn't 
agree  with  that  particular  person.  The  whole  subject 
of  health  is  wrapt  up  in  this  one  little  question  of 
breath. 

Whisky  makes  another  form  of  bad  breath.  Alcohol 
has  many  effects  which  need  not  be  talked  of  here ;  but 
it  is  a  fact  that  many  men  will  not  do  business  with  a 
person  who  smells  of  whisky.  Just  one  whiff  is  enough 
for  them :  business  is  all  off.  Formerly  it  was  thought 
that  for  sociability  a  salesman  must  drink  with  his  cus- 
tomers. Scientific  investigation  has  shown  that  there 
are  far  more  customers  who  do  not  care  for  that  kind 
of  sociability  than  who  do,  and  now  the  vast  majority 
of  salesmen  on  the  road  make  it  a  special  point  never 
to  call  on  a  customer  with  a  breath  that  smells  of  alcohol : 
those  who  do  not  mind  it  are  not  repelled  by  a  clean 
breath,  and  those  who  do  mind  it  are  saved  from  some- 
thing that  disgusts  them. 

Lastly  we  may  mention  the  cigaret  breath.  Cigar- 
ets  smoked  by  young  people  are  very  likely  to  sap  the 


402        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


vitality,  and  lack  of  vitality  shows  itself,  among  other 
ways,  by  foul  breath.  Stained  finger-tips  also  suggest 
weakness  to  many  people,  who  view  with  suspicion  any 
person  they  suspect  of  being  weak-willed.  It  also  is 
likely  to  carry  with  it  a  nonchalant  manner,  which  never 
impresses  people  with  a  sense  of  responsibility. 

This  matter  of  breath  is  taken  as  an  illustration  of 
all  the  little  personal  weaknesses  and  defects  which  may 
hinder  success.  Nothing  is  so  hidden,  so  intimately  per- 
sonal, that  it  does  not  come  out  on  a  salesman. 

Questions  on  Personality  in  Salesmanship 

1.  Define  personality  as  an  essential  element  in  sales- 
manship. 

2.  State  briefly  the  value  and  importance  of  each  of 
the  following  personal  qualities:  Kindness,  courage, 
diplomacy,  aggressiveness,  honesty,  enthusiasm,  and  an 
unconquerable  will. 

3.  Let  us  make  a  cold-blooded,  just  analysis  of  our- 
selves as  to  each  of  these  points,  and  then  consider  just 
how  each  weakness  or  lack  can  be  remedied. 

4.  Illustrate  the  advantages  of  wearing  good  clothes. 

5.  Illustrate  the  advantages  of  cultivating  good  man- 
ners. 

6.  "What  items  are  included  under  the  general  head- 
ing, '^The  Advantage  of  Having  a  Good  Breath?^' 

7.  Let  us  discuss  in  detail  the  whole  personality  of 
the  good  salesman,  what  qualities  are  absolutely  essen- 
tial, what  qualities  are  good  things  to  have,  and  what 
qualities  may  possibly  be  slighted,  until  we  can  draw 
a  fair  picture  of  the  successful  salesman  and  decide 
whether  each  of  us  can  become  a  salesman  worthy  of  the 
name. 


II 


DIFFERENT   KINDS   OF  SALESMEN  AND 
THEIR  DUTIES 

The  easiest  and  most  general  form  of  salesmanship 
is  that  in  retail  stores.  Sales-persons  of  this  kind  are 
largely  women,  and  women  are  among  the  most  suc- 
cessful. 

1.  Retail.  Let  us  see  what  it  takes  to  make  a  good 
retail  sales-person. 

First,  such  a  person  must  be  neatly  and  cleanly  drest, 
but  never  showily.  Showy  dress  distracts  attention  from 
the  goods,  in  women  draws  the  gaze  of  impertinent  men, 
and  in  all  suggests  vulgarity.  It  is  strictly  prohibited 
by  the  best  department  stores.  At  the  same  time  any 
untidiness  equally  attracts  attention  and  excites  dis- 
gust in  the  well-drest  customers. 

Second,  retail  sales-persons  must  show  alert  attention 
even  when  weary.  Even  the  suggestion  of  indifference 
to  customers  drives  them  away  more  surely  than  any- 
thing else. 

These  may  be  called  the  negative  qualities.  No  one 
notices  them,  and  in  themselves  they  do  not  make  suc- 
cess, but  when  they  are  lacking,  failure  is  certain. 

The  great  positive  quality  in  a  retail  salesman  is 
knowledge  of  the  stock  and  a  clear,  simple  way  of  ex- 
plaining and  describing  it  to  the  customer.  First,  the 
sales-person  must  know  just  where  to  put  his  hand  on 
anything  that  may  be  called  for.  Delays  in  hunting  for 
things  are  always  seriously  irritating.  And  then,  in  the 
second  place,  the  customer  wants  expert  advice  and  looks 
to  the  salesman  to  give  it.  That  is  something  that  a 
great  many  sales-persons  do  not  seem  to  understand  at 

403 


404        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


all.  Mr.  Knox  gives  a  little  anecdote  to  illustrate  it. 
A  certain  sales-person  was  showing  two  pieces  of  cloth, 
one  at  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  yard  and  the  other 
at  four  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  yard.  ^^What  is  the 
difference  between  these?"  asked  the  customer  who  was 
examining  them  attentively.  ^'Two  dollars  a  yard," 
was  the  unintelligent  answer.  ^'Yes,  I  know  that.  I 
have  studied  elementary  arithmetic.  What  I  want  to 
know  is  why  you  charge  four  dollars  and  fifty  cents  for 
one,  when  the  other,  which  looks  almost  the  same,  is 
only  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents."  ^^I  suppose  because 
the  firm  needs  the  money,"  was  the  almost  impertinent 
reply.  It  had  probably  not  occurred  to  that  young  lady 
that  she  was  expected  to  know  just  what  the  difference 
was,  and  explain  it  to  the  customer.  In  such  a  case  the 
customer  is  either  disgusted  and  leaves  to  visit  another 
store  where  more  intelligent  clerks  are  employed,  or  buys 
the  cheaper  piece,  when  a  little  knowledge  might  have 
effected  a  sale  at  nearly  double  the  lower  price.  It  is 
not  only  the  sales-person's  duty  to  make  a  sale,  but  to 
make  the  largest  sale  possible  consistent  with  good  policy. 

Mr.  Sheldon,  in  his  shorter  course  on  salesmanship, 
illustrates  the  difference  between  the  ^^order-taker"  and 
the  ^ ^salesman."  A  patron  stepped  into  a  clothing-store 
in  Toledo,  just  before  closing  time  and  asked  to  see  some 
shirts.  The  ^ '  order-taker, "  without  making  any  effort 
to  show  his  line,  asked  bluntly,  ^'How  much  do  you  want 
to  pay?"  The  prospective  patron  replied  that  he  was 
not  so  much  concerned  about  the  price  as  about  the 
shirt.  After  asking  a  few  more  questions  the  order- 
taker"  was  finally  induced  to  lay  one  sample  upon  the 
counter.  Upon  being  asked  what  price  it  was,  he  an- 
swered, ^'A  dollar."  When  asked  if  that  was  the  best 
he  had,  he  replied,  It  is  the  best  I  have  for  a  dollar. ' ' 
At  length,  persuaded  that  the  patron  might  be  induced 


SALESMEN  AND  THEIR  DUTIES  405 


to  go  a  little  higher,  he  turned  about,  hummed  a  tune, 
snapt  a  tattoo  accompaniment,  and  began  an  extended 
but  determined  search  for  another  shirt.  The  patron 
waited  and  waited  and  waited.  Finally  the  ^^order- 
taker"  returned,  laid  another  shirt  before  the  patron, 
and  said,  '  ^  This  is  a  pretty  good  shirt,  but  it  comes  half 
a  dollar  higher."  The  gentleman  who  related  this  inci- 
dent stated  that  at  this  point  he  began  to  wonder  if  he 
really  looked  to  be  as  hard  up  as  the  ^^order-taker" 
evidently  thought  him  to  be.  He  further  stated  that  his 
only  reason  for  finally  purchasing  the  shirt  was  that 
necessity  demanded  it,  and  the  other  stores  in  town  were 
by  that  time  closed.  Absolutely  no  effort  was  made  by 
the  ^^order-taker"  to  be  of  further  service  to  the  patron, 
who,  had  he  been  properly  served  in  the  first  instance, 
would  probably  have  purchased  two  shirts  instead  of 
one,  together  with  some  collars,  ties,  and  gloves  added 
for  good  measure. 

That  is  one  side.  Here  Mr.  Sheldon  states  the  possi- 
bilities : 

Contrast  this  with  the  young  lady  in  a  Pittsburgh 
store  who  through  her  personal  efforts,  through  her 
friends  and  their  friends,  built  up  a  large  clientele 
worth  many  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  house.  She  did 
not  wait  to  be  told,  but  assumed  the  initiative  and,  in- 
stead of  giving  the  least  for  the  money,  she  gave  the 
most  she  could,  regardless  of  money. 

*'She  listed  all  the  customers  who  called  upon  her, 
with  name,  address,  and  telephone  number,  and  when 
possible  made  notes  as  to  style  and  nature  of  the  goods 
they  bought.  She  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  buyer  of 
her  department,  and  closely  watched  the  special  sales  of 
other  stores.  "Whenever  a  leader  was  introduced  or  a 
special  sales-day  announced  for  the  department,  she 
would  drop  each  of  her  customers  a  post-card  announc- 


406        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ing  the  sale,  inviting  them  to  come  early,  and  calling 
their  attention  to  particular  features  and  values.  Her 
most  intimate  friends  she  would  call  up  on  the  'phone 
and  tell  them  of  certain  articles  she  believed  they  would 
like  to  secure. 

Being  naturally  systematic  and  careful,  she  seldom 
made  an  error  in  her  sales-slips;  by  making  personal 
friends  of  her  customers  she  put  them  under  obligations 
to  her,  which  in  turn  was  reflected  in  their  relations 
with  the  credit  department.  Her  accuracy  in  detail 
prevented  errors  in  the  accounting  division,  and  her  all- 
round  efficient  service  procured  for  her  a  $3,000  position 
shortly  before  my  last  visit  to  that  store.  She  made 
values  great  and  reduced  costs.  Supervision  of  her 
work  was  unnecessary,  because  she  was  interested  in  the 
business,  and  by  reason  of  that  interest  she  received  a 
just  share  of  the  profits.  The  reason  most  people  do 
not  accomplish  more  is  because  they  do  not  attempt 
more." 

Beside  that  girl  getting  $3,000  a  year,  at  the  same 
counter  were,  doubtless,  a  number  of  others  getting  no 
more  than  seven  or  eight  dollars  a  week,  possibly  less. 
They  had  as  good  a  chance  as  she,  indeed,  precisely  the 
same  chance.    The  difference  was  entirely  in  the  girl. 

2.  Wholesale.  Selling  to  dealers  is  in  many  ways 
entirely  different  from  other  forms  of  salesmanship. 
The  retail  clerk  as  a  rule  is  expected  merely  to  take  care 
of  those  who  come  to  the  store  in  search  of  some  thing. 
Modern  advertising  is  depended  on  to  bring  the  cus- 
tomers to  the  store.  The  wholesale  salesman  must  go 
to  his  customers,  and  so  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  a 
traveling  man. 

The  life  of  the  traveling  man  is  a  hard  one,  as  he  must 
be  away  from  home  a  good  deal  of  the  time  and  so  can 
not  enjoy  domesticity  very  much ;  he  has  to  be  up  at  all 


SALESMEN  AND  THEIR  DUTIES  407 


times  of  the  day  and  night  to  catch  trains,  and  he  must 
live  at  hotels  and  eat  what  he  happens  to  get  served  to 
him.  Unless  he  is  physically  strong  and  takes  excellent 
care  of  himself,  guarding  his  diet,  and  learning  to  regu- 
late his  life  even  when  he  is  on  the  fly,  he  will  break 
down  and  have  to  give  up  the  work.  For  that  reason 
traveling  men  have  been,  as  a  rule,  pretty  hardy  men, 
and  not  many  women  have  ventured  into  a  field  which  re- 
quires so  much  physical  stamina,  tho  no  doubt  women 
could  succeed  as  well  as  many  men,  and  some  have  made 
remarkable  successes. 

A  traveling  man  ^'covers  certain  territory,"  that  is, 
a  certain  list  of  towns  in  one  or  more  States.  These  are 
selected  usually  because  of  their  convenience  to  railroad 
connections.  Sometimes  a  traveling  man  will  spend  one 
day  to  several  weeks  in  a  single  place,  and  again  he  will 
make  as  many  as  six  small  towns  in  one  day.  All 
depends  on  his  line  of  business.  Grocery-salesmen  will 
call  on  their  trade  every  week,  or  at  any  rate  once  a 
month.  Furniture-salesmen  will  probably  call  on  most 
of  their  trade  only  once  a  season,  that  is  twice  a  year. 
Toy-salesmen  will  call  but  once  a  year.  ^^Eouting" 
the  salesman  is  an  important  matter,  because  the  towns 
he  visits  must  be  proportioned  in  size  to  his  salary,  and 
must  be  linked  up  so  that  he  can  make  money  for  the 
firm  all  along  the  route.  In  the  mercantile  agency  books 
such  as  Dun's  or  Bradstreet's  there  will  be  found  the 
names  of  all  dealers  arranged  by  towns,  with  a  key  to 
their  business  and  their  capital  rating  sufficient  to  show 
how  large  they  are.  Before  a  salesman  goes  to  them 
the  credit-man  wants  to  be  sure  they  will  pay  their  bills. 
So  it  is  possible  to  make  a  complete  list  of  all  the  good 
prospects  in  a  given  territory,  and  get  information  about 
each  that  will  give  the  salesman  a  clue  to  what  he  will 
find  when  he  calls. 


408        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Dealers  are  visited  by  two  kinds  of  traveling  men, 
salesmen  from  jobbers  and  salesmen  from  manufac- 
turers. The  jobbers  try  to  sell  a  dealer  everything  he 
wants,  but  not  any  particular  line  of  goods  as  a  rule. 
Their  first  object  is  to  serve  the  dealer  in  the  way  he 
wants  to  be  served,  giving  him  what  he  asks  for  regard- 
less of  anything  else.  These  salesmen  are  really  selling 
the  service  of  their  house  in  the  matter  of  gathering  and 
shipping  the  proper  goods  for  a  retail  dealer. 

The  salesmen  of  manufacturers  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
concentrating  their  attention  on  pushing  one  particular 
brand  or  style  of  goods  as  a  rule,  as  underwear,  furni- 
ture, sporting-goods,  etc.  These  may  have  a  high-class 
line,  or  a  low-priced  line,  or  a  line  with  some  peculiarity 
or  specialty.  Not  all  dealers  will  be  possible  customers. 
Sometimes  the  salesman  wants  to  get  merely  the  one  best 
dealer  in  a  town  and  give  him  the  exclusive  right  to 
handle  that  line.  Again  he  will  try  to  sell  every  dealer 
in  town. 

First  of  all,  the  traveling  man  tries  to  make  friends 
with  the  dealer.  Often  this  friendship  becomes  so  close 
that  large  numbers  of  dealers  will  go  with  a  certain 
salesman  if  he  connects  himself  with  another  house. 
The  personality  of  the  salesman  dominates  the  quality 
of  the  goods.  But  as  business  has  become  more  thor- 
oughly organized  on  a  scientific  basis,  dealers  know  what 
they  are  buying,  and  pay  less  attention  to  personality 
than  to  merit.  Other  things  being  equal,  however,  they 
will  always  buy  goods  from  the  man  they  like  best. 

"When  a  traveling  man  goes  over  a  territory,  he  gets 
a  certain  list  of  friends  which  become  his  ^^old  cus- 
tomers," his  standbys.  Many  salesmen  are  content  with 
that  and  do  not  reach  out  to  add  to  their  list.  They  say 
they  haven't  time.  It  is  easier  to  hit  the  high  spots  and 
get  the  cream  of  the  business,  letting  the  poorer  business 


SALESMEN  AND  THEIR  DUTIES  409 


go.  But  the  most  successful  concerns  make  salesmen  go 
over  their  territory  with  a  fine-toothed  comb  to  get  every 
possible  customer.  It  usually  costs  the  profits  of  six 
months  or  a  year  to  add  a  new  customer;  but  if  that 
customer  will  go  on  buying  for  years  to  come,  the  later 
profit  will  make  it  well  worth  while  to  sacrifice  a  great 
deal  to  get  him  started. 

The  dealer  is  not  interested  in  the  absolute  merits  of 
goods,  but  in  their  power  to  sell.  The  best  article  on 
earth  may  remain  on  his  shelves  for  years  if  people  do 
not  know  about  it  and  come  to  ask  for  it.  Some  goods 
fail  to  sell  as  expected  even  in  the  best  stores,  and  the 
wise  dealers  push  them  off  at  bargain  prices  to  get  rid 
of  them  and  make  room  for  more  salable  merchandise. 
Such  goods  as  clothing  are  seasonable,  and  winter  cloth- 
ing can  not  possibly  be  sold  when  spring  comes,  while 
the  next  winter  the  styles  may  have  changed  and  nobody 
wants  the  goods  on  that  account.  There  are  staple  lines 
which  change  little  from  year  to  year,  but  usually  the 
competition  on  them  is  close  and  the  profit  small.  Money 
is  made  on  the  fresh  and  changeable  goods,  which  at  the 
same  time  are  more  risky  to  carry. 

Often  goods  do  not  sell  because  the  retailer  does  not 
know  how  to  sell  them.  The  salesman  must  then  become 
his  teacher,  and  give  him  lessons  of  a  very  specific  kind 
in  getting  rid  of  the  goods  which  he  is  trying  to  induce 
him  to  buy. 

The  traveling  man  may  receive  either  a  salary  or  a 
commission,  or  both,  and  usually  his  expenses  are  paid. 
These  are  all  figured  on  the  basis  of  the  ' '  cost-to-seir ' 
which  the  goods  can  bear.  That  may  be  5  per  cent,  or  it 
may  be  10  per  cent.,  or  in  the  case  of  jobbers  only  2  or 
3  per  cent.;  but  obviously  if  the  salesman  is  to  be 
counted  a  success  he  must  sell  enough  goods  in  a  given 
time  and  a  given  territory  to  show  a  profit  to  his  em- 


410        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ployer,  and  his  expenses  must  be  counted  with  his  salary 
or  commission  as  a  part  of  the  cost-to-sell/'  So, 
whether  a  salary  or  a  commission  is  paid,  it  comes  back 
practically  to  a  percentage  basis.  The  man  who  can  not 
get  within  the  ^  ^  cost-to-sell ' '  percentage  will  soon  be 
without  a  position. 

In  wholesale  selling  the  business  for  the  most  part 
already  exists,  somebody  has  it,  and  it  is  a  matter  for 
the  salesman  and  the  firm  to  join  forces  to  get  it  away 
from  the  other  fellow.  In  former  times,  this  was  done 
in  part  by  knocking  "  competitors.  In  modern  busi- 
ness it  has  come  to  be  an  axiom  that  knocking"  is 
always  and  under  all  circumstances  bad  business.  Under 
severe  provocation  some  business  concerns  will  attack 
competitors  openly,  and  many  do  it  on  the  quiet;  but 
the  most  careful  observers  believe  that  it  seldom  gets 
the  business  for  the  man  who  makes  the  attack.  People 
do  not,  as  a  rule,  buy  because  something  else  is  bad,  but 
because  they  see  the  merits  of  the  thing  that  is  offered 
to  them.  They  are  suspicious  of  the  man  who  knocks." 
A  sense  of  fairness  makes  them  revolt.  At  the  same 
time  unimpassioned  comparison  of  one  article  with  an- 
other is  precisely  the  thing  that  a  dealer  appreciates, 
because  in  his  own  mind  he  must  decide  between  this 
article  and  that:  "Will  it  give  satisfaction  to  his  cus- 
tomers? Is  it  really  more  meritorious?  Or  will  his 
customers  ask  for  it  more  readily?  Dealers  buy  goods 
because  they  are  advertised  and  people  will  come  and 
ask  for  them,  and  that  is  a  very  powerful  reason  with 
them;  or  they  will  buy  goods  on  which  they  can  make 
a  larger  profit  and  can  sell  by  their  own  personal  recom- 
mendation to  people  who  ask  for  something  else,  or  who 
do  not  know  exactly  what  they  want.  The  wholesale 
salesman  must  know  his  competition  perfectly,  not  to 
attack  it,  but  to  understand  what  merits  of  his  own 


SALESMEN  AND  THEIR  DUTIES  411 


goods  to  play  up.  He  must  even  know  what  the  other 
salesmen  are  saying  so  as  to  offset  their  arguments  even 
without  making  the  slightest  direct  reference  to  them. 
It  is  business  finesse  carried  to  the  highest  point  of 
perfection. 

3.  Specialty.  The  specialty-salesman  has  one  thing 
and  devotes  himself  exclusively  to  selling  that,  whether 
it  is  a  gas-lighter  which  he  sells  from  house  to  house  at 
fifty  cents  each,  or  a  typewriter  which  he  sells  for  $100, 
or  an  automobile  which  he  sells  for  $5,000.  He  sells 
direct  to  the  consumer,  usually  makes  but  one  sale,  and 
so  he  seldom  has  a  list  of  customers  to  which  he  can  go 
again  and  again  for  orders.  Such  articles  must  have 
large  margins  of  profit,  anywhere  from  50  to  90 
per  cent.,  and  the  cost  to  sell  is  the  greater  part  of  the 
expense  of  getting  that  article  to  the  customer.  For 
example,  it  is  said  that  a  hundred-dollar  typewriter 
costs  perhaps  fifteen  to  eighteen  dollars  to  manufacture, 
but  fifty  to  seventy  dollars  to  sell.  It  is  in  such  cases 
that  the  salesmanship  becomes  most  highly  specialized. 

Eetail  salesmen  merely  take  care  of  those  who  come 
to  the  store  for  the  definite  purpose  of  buying  some- 
thing. Wholesale  salesmen  go  to  dealers  who  must  have 
goods  to  resell,  so  that  it  is  only  a  matter  of  whether 
they  buy  from  this  salesman  or  from  a  competitor. 
Specialty-salesmen  go  to  people  who  do  not  particularly 
want  the  article,  or  desire  it  only  very  faintly,  and  they 
must  waken  desire  not  only  for  their  own  article  but 
even  for  anything  at  all  in  that  line.  Fanning  up 
desire  and  making  people  want  what  they  never  before 
thought  of  w^anting  is  their  first  and  biggest  duty. 

Some  people  think  that  it  is  an  impertinence  to  try 
to  influence  people  to  buy  what  they  don't  want.  It  is 
a  crime  to  make  them  buy  what  their  best  interests  do 
not  require ;  but  you  must  face  the  fact  that  the  majority 


412        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

of  people  do  not  know  wliat  their  best  interests  require, 
and,  of  course,  they  don't  want  what  they  do  not  know 
about.  The  National  Cash  Register  Co.  says  to  its  sales- 
men, ^^You  must  not  proceed  on  the  theory  that  store- 
keepers usually  know  what  their  best  interests  are.  They 
don't.  No  man  always  does.  The  majority  of  men  are 
going  contrary  to  their  best  interest  every  day.  They 
seem  to  be  almost  wilfully  blind  to  the  things  that  would 
help  them  and  make  them  better  off." 

For  example,  the  Burroughs  Adding-Machine  Co. 
found  that  retail  stores  seemed  to  need  very  few  adding- 
machines.  They  said  they  had  not  time  to  keep  elaborate 
accounts  or  cost-records.  Yet  it  would  be  extremely  valu- 
able to  them  if  they  could  know  the  exact  costs  of  every 
department  and  every  line  of  goods,  because  then  they 
could  eliminate  those  which  were  losing  money  for  them, 
and  increase  their  business  on  those  which  were  making 
them  a  handsome  profit.  The  Burroughs  people  decided 
that  if  the  storekeepers  had  adding-machines  they  could 
compile  those  very  necessary  figures  cheaply  enough  so 
they  could  afford  to  have  them.  So  they  went  out  to 
educate  retail  dealers  to  the  idea  that  they  needed  to 
know  more  completely  their  costs  and  margins,  and  that 
tho  by  the  old  method  they  could  not  afford  to  compile 
such  figures,  by  use  of  an  adding-machine  they  could  do 
it  cheaply  enough  to  make  it  highly  profitable.  Many 
a  man  shook  his  head  and  said  he  knew  his  own  business ; 
hundreds  of  others  listened,  were  convinced,  and  made 
money  by  the  experiment.  The  specialty-salesman  is  a 
missionary  to  bring  new  ideas  to  people  who  have  never 
thought  of  them  before. 


SALESMEN  AND  THEIR  DUTIES  413 


Questions  on  the  Duties  of  Different  Kinds  of 
Salesmen 

1.  What  is  the  easiest  kind  of  salesmanship?  Illus- 
trate the  qualities  of  a  good  retail  salesman,  and  show 
how  a  large  business  may  be  built  up  even  with  the 
limited  opportunities  offered. 

2.  "What  is  the  traveling  man?  Describe  his  life. 
What  does  it  mean  to  cover  territory?"  What  is  the 
difference  between  salesmen  from  jobbers  and  salesmen 
from  manufacturers?  Illustrate  the  different  kinds  of 
selling-talk  each  might  use.  What  is  the  meaning  of 
* '  cost-to-sell, ' '  and  how  is  the  salary  or  commission  based 
on  that? 

3.  In  what  way  is  competition  handled  by  salesmen 
to  dealers?  Why  is  it  important  to  know  all  about  it? 
What  is  done  when  it  is  known  ? 

4.  Give  examples  of  specialty-salesmen.  Describe 
their  method  of  work.  How  do  their  selling-talks  com- 
pare with  those  of  wholesale  salesmen  ?  To  what  extent 
is  it  just  to  consider  them  nuisances  ?  How  might  their 
work  be  regarded  as  desirable  education  ? 


Ill 


MODERN  SALES  ORGANIZATION* 

In  the  old  days  the  salesman  was  simply  turned  out 
and  told  to  get  the  business  if  he  could;  and  if  he 
couldn't  he  was  discharged  and  some  one  else  sent  out. 
Some  men  made  remarkable  successes,  and  the  firm  that 
got  the  most  successful  men  commanded  the  field.  But 
another  firm  could  come  along  with  more  money  and  hire 
away  these  salesmen  so  as  to  put  the  first  firm  nearly 
out  of  business.  This  method  of  doing  business  led  to 
the  idea  that  salesmen  are  born,  not  made.  Success  was 
then  very  largely  a  matter  of  the  natural  aptitude  of  the 
salesman.  To-day,  natural  aptitude  is  valued  as  much 
as  ever,  but  it  is  organized  and  trained. 

The  Sales-Manager 

A  sales-manager  must  be  a  successful  salesman  him- 
self. The  only  really  successful  way  of  giving  personal 
instruction  in  salesmanship  is  to  go  out  and  show  the 
novice  just  how  it  is  done,  from  gaining  attention  to 
closing  the  sale.  A  subscription-book  house  once  em- 
ployed as  sales-manager  such  a  person.  He  could  go 
out  at  any  time  and  take  an  order  for  a  twenty-dollar  set 
of  books  inside  of  an  hour.  Of  course  he  knew  in  ad- 
vance, as  every  good  salesman  should,  where  he  could 
get  the  order  and  just  how  to  go  after  it.  He  would 
give  his  samples  to  the  student  salesman,  saying,  *^Just 
carry  these  for  me."  Then  he  would  walk  in  with  his 
fine  clothes  and  stunning  manner  and  say,  *^Mr.  Jones, 

*  Read  Hoyt's  "Scientific  Sales  Management." 

414 


MODERN  SALES  ORGANIZATION  415 


Congressman  Burton  has  reserved  a  set  of  the  Messages 
of  the  Presidents  for  you,  and  has  asked  me  to  call  on 
you  and  inquire  how  you  would  like  to  have  them 
bound.''  From  such  an  introduction  no  man  could  get 
away.  "What  he  said  was  true,  and  his  business  was  in 
reality  to  sell  the  binding  at  a  good  price.  Often  in  ten 
minutes  he  had  his  order  in  his  pocket,  and  when  he  was 
outside  he  pointed  out  to  the  salesman  just  how  each 
step  was  taken.  No  man  would  undertake  to  plead  a 
case  in  court  unless  he  had  first  studied  law,  and  then 
had  prepared  himself  in  advance  by  studying  the  legal 
points  and  looking  up  decisions.  The  young  lawyer 
usually  is  associated  with  an  older  lawyer,  who  is  his 
teacher.  Just  in  the  same  way  the  young  salesman 
must  have  an  older  salesman  who  can  turn  the  trick, 
and  also  show  him  just  how  it  is  done. 

A  sales-organization  to  succeed  must  have  a  practical, 
successful  man  at  its  head.  The  merely  theoretical  man 
is  bound  to  fail,  because  he  can't  teach  others  what  he 
hasn 't  learned  himself. 

The  List  of  Prospects 

The  first  thing  that  the  good  sales-manager  does  is  to 
get  a  list  of  all  the  good  prospects  in  his  territory.  If 
he  is  dealing  with  the  trade  he  has  this  compiled  from 
Dun's  or  Bradstreet's.  As  a  rule,  he  must  check  the 
names  himself,  as  he  alone  knows  precisely  what  kinds 
of  firms  to  choose.  He  has  a  railroad  map  before  him 
and  studies  the  connections  of  trains.  Fairly  large 
towns  that  are  inaccessible  he  may  omit  altogether,  and 
very  small  towns  that  can  be  visited  between  trains  he 
will  include.  The  towns  omitted  or  marked  with  a 
question  indicating  infrequent  visiting  he  will  put  in  a 
list  by  themselves  to  be  canvassed  by  mail.  After  he 
has  compiled  his  list  from  the  books,  he  consults  practical 


416        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


salesmen  who  have  been  over  the  territory,  if  this  is 
possible.  From  their  personal  knowledge  of  towns  and 
of  concerns  in  those  towns,  they  help  him  to  correct 
his  own  judgment.  Then  the  credit  man  goes  over  the 
list  and  passes  on  the  credit  of  each  prospect  even  before 
any  business  is  solicited  from  him.  This  thorough 
preparation  of  the  list  of  possible  customers  in  the  terri- 
tory is  one  of  the  most  important  elements  of  modern 
sales-organization.  It  saves  an  enormous  waste  of  time 
to  the  salesman,  expense  in  going  to  impossible  places, 
and  the  confusion  of  thought  incident  to  going  into  a 
really  unknown  field. 

The  manager  of  a  sales-force  on  a  specialty  sold  direct 
to  consumers  does  the  same  thing.  With  telephone  and 
city  directories  he  compiles  a  list.  This  he  arranges 
according  to  street  numbers  or  office  buildings,  so  that  no 
time  will  be  lost  in  winding  back  and  forth.  Usually 
directories  are  alphabetical  by  names  and  must  be  re- 
arranged specially  with  reference  to  streets  and  car 
lines,  but  the  rearranging  is  indispensable  for  economical 
work. 

Even  the  manager  of  a  retail  store  will  have  a  well- 
prepared  list  of  persons  who  ought  to  be  customers  but 
are  not,  usually  with  telephone  numbers  so  that  they  can 
be  called  up.  Every  one  of  these  who  is  turned  into  a 
regular  customer  may  be  worth  from  five  to  fifty  dollars. 
In  San  Francisco  there  is  a  newsboy  who  has  a  sort  of 
hole  in  a  wall,  but  he  has  systematically  worked  up  a 
list  of  customers,  and  these  he  calls  up  over  the  tele- 
phone, working  on  the  list  all  day  long.  When  he  gets 
them  he  gives  them  the  latest  news  about  magazines  and 
books.  ^'McClure^s  is  just  out  with  a  splendid  article 
on  The  customers  come  to  depend  on  this  volun- 
tary news-service,  and  in  gratitude  for  his  thoughtful- 
ness,  hasten  to  his  stand  to  buy  the  book  or  magazine 


MODERN  SALES  ORGANIZATION  417 


he  mentions.  Even  with  modern  advertising  in  news- 
papers, retail  stores  should  do  this  individual  work  con- 
stantly. It  is  the  only  way  in  which  the  maximum 
business  can  be  obtained. 

Educating  the  Customer 

Articles  valued  at  less  than  a  dollar  can  be  sold  by 
personal  canvassing  only  from  house  to  house.  The  cost 
of  preparatory  work  is  too  great  for  the  possible  profit 
to  make  any  other  system  feasible.  Usually  five  dollars, 
or  often  ten  dollars,  is  the  lowest  price  for  a  single 
article  which  will  make  a  profit  possible  on  more  elabo- 
rate systems  of  soliciting. 

On  all  staples  the  sale  of  the  first  order  is  looked  on 
merely  as  the  opening  wedge  for  a  steady  line  of  busi- 
ness. For  example,  if  an  average  family  uses  groceries 
worth  five  dollars  a  week,  in  a  year  that  family  would 
use  $250,  on  which  the  profit  may  perhaps  be  only 
20  per  cent.,  or  fifty  dollars.  All  of  that  might  be 
spent  to  get  a  good  customer  started,  who  in  years  to 
come  would  go  on  and  give  the  house  a  clear  profit  of 
fifty  dollars  a  year,  or  even  half  of  that. 

When  the  amount  involved  justifies  a  rather  serious 
effort  on  each  person,  the  sales-manager  will  first  of  all 
appeal  to  the  advertising  manager  (unless  he  is  himself 
also  the  advertising  manager)  to  prepare  a  circular 
giving  the  full  canvass  on  the  article,  a  letter  giving  a 
short  canvass,  and  a  return  card  or  order  blank  of  some 
sort,  or  an  inquiry  blank.  These  he  mails  out  to  his 
list,  often  under  one-cent  postage.  He  tries  both  one- 
cent  and  two-cent,  and  adopts  the  method  which  shows 
the  greatest  return  for  the  total  money  expenditure. 
The  three  items  mentioned  are  usually  necessary,  the 
letter  to  give  a  brief  idea  of  what  the  proposal  is,  the 
circular  to  supply  full  information  to  those  whom  the 


418        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


letter  has  interested  and  who  want  more  information 
before  they  place  an  order,  and  a  return  form  to  make 
ordering  or  sending  an  inquiry  easy.  The  returns 
should  as  a  rule  be  not  less  than  1  per  cent.,  while 
5  per  cent,  is  considered  very  large  and  10  per  cent, 
enormous.  As  high  as  85  per  cent,  of  returns 
have  been  secured  in  rare  instances.  Usually  the  open- 
ing letter  is  followed  up  by  attractive  mailing-pieces, 
each  containing  a  short,  pointed  canvass,  from  a  different 
angle  from  anything  that  has  gone  before.  In  all  cases 
a  return-form  of  some  sort  should  be  attached.  Ordinary 
tag  board  of  heavy  manila  bristol  or  document  manila 
is  best  for  common  and  general  use.  Each  mailing-piece 
should  bring  its  percentage  of  returns. 

The  direct  returns  from  these  mailings  will  usually 
pay  the  cost  of  printing  and  mailing,  but  the  number  of 
pieces  that  can  be  sent  profitably  at  one  time  will  be 
limited  to  from  three  to  ten  as  a  rule.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  total  business  that  can  be  secured  in  this  way 
will  be  too  small  to  be  content  with  unless  the  possible 
list  of  customers  is  enormous,  running  into  the  millions 
as  in  the  case  of  Sears,  Eoebuck  &  Co. 

The  real  object  of  this  mailing  is  to  educate  the  cus- 
tomer in  advance  for  the  benefit  of  the  salesman,  who 
should  call  on  every  customer  on  the  list  within  three 
or  four  weeks  at  the  outside.  Every  person  who  has 
received  the  letter  and  mailing-pieces  has  been  educated 
to  a  certain  point  as  a  rule.  Some  have  thrown  most  of 
the  circular  matter  into  the  waste-basket,  but  even  if  only 
one  headline  or  one  card  has  been  read  all  through  it 
may  favorably  dispose  the  prospect  to  listen  to  the  sales- 
man when  he  calls.  Once  a  firm  decided  to  open  up 
territory  in  Wisconsin,  and  after  having  prepared  a 
good  list  sent  out  thirteen  mailing-pieces  of  different 
kinds,  each  distinctive,  each  making  an  important  poini; 


MODERN  SALES  ORGANIZATION  419 


on  the  goods.  A  young  salesman  followed  after  and  took 
a  large  volume  of  orders.  He  thought  the  returns  were 
due  to  his  own  cleverness,  and  said  so  frankly.  So  he  was 
assigned  to  similar  territory  in  Iowa,  which  had  not 
been  worked  in  advance  by  the  mailings;  but  in  three 
weeks  he  was  called  home  because  he  was  not  getting 
business  enough  to  pay  his  expenses.  Armour  &  Co. 
sent  salesmen  out  into  the  northwest  quarter  of  Chicago 
to  sell  their  Simon  Pure  lard  in  pails,  at  a  price  just 
above  the  market.  When  the  dealers  heard  the  price 
they  refused  to  listen  to  the  salesmen  at  all.  But  a  list 
was  prepared  and  educated  by  a  series  of  letters  which 
pointed  out  the  advantages  of  cleanliness,  exact  weights, 
freshness  every  week,  etc.,  and  then  the  salesmen  went 
again.  From  nearly  every  dealer  who  had  received  the 
educative  matter  they  got  an  order,  but  still  they  were 
unable  to  get  an  order  from  those  dealers  who  for  one 
reason  or  another  had  been  missed  in  the  mailing. 
When  a  campaign  was  started  in  New  York  City  the 
advertising  man  was  sent  right  there  to  work  for  three 
or  four  weeks  on  the  spot  and  prepare  the  dealers  by 
his  letters  and  circulars.  This  was  regarded  as  the 
hardest  field  in  the  United  States,  but  the  salesmen  got 
the  business  when  they  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  edu- 
cational campaign.  In  the  case  of  a  bond-selling  busi- 
ness, the  direct  returns  were  almost  none,  as  investors 
are  very  wary  of  giving  any  one  a  hint  that  they  have 
money ;  but  it  was  found  that  salesmen  could  follow  the 
list  and  get  an  excellent  line  of  orders  from  those  who 
had  received  the  circular  matter,  tho  they  had  given  no 
indication  of  interest  in  'it.  Hundreds  of  other  business 
firms  throughout  the  United  States  have  proved  the  same 
thing. 


420        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Managing  Salesmen 

Handling  salesmen  is  very  much  like  driving  a  four- 
in-hand  team  of  horses.  Same  lag  and  need  to  be 
touched  up,  some  break  away  from  the  system  of  the 
house  and  need  to  be  brought  back  into  line  again,  some 
are  not  thorough  and  do  not  clean  up  the  business  as 
they  should,  while  others  are  too  conscientious  and  there- 
fore are  so  slow  they  do  not  keep  their  cost-to-sell  down 
to  the  right  figure.  It  is  a  keen,  energetic  man  who  is 
able  to  keep  a  force  of  salesmen  always  at  their  best, 
and  a  highly  developed  organization  often  requires 
several  years  to  create. 

"While  the  personality  of  the  sales-manager  is  an  im- 
portant element,  modern  scientific  sales-methods  are  also 
indispensable  for  the  highest  results. 

First,  a  card  system  should  be  kept  where  at  a  glance 
the  sales-manager  can  see  just  what  a  man  has  done  in 
a  given  field  up  to  the  night  before.  Salesmen's  daily 
reports  should  be  received  and  immediately  placed  with- 
in the  range  of  the  sales-manager's  eye.  If  anything  is 
wrong,  a  personal  letter  or  telegram  should  go  to  the 
salesman  without  delay.  In  any  case  once  a  week,  or 
in  some  cases  once  a  month,  a  stimulating  letter  or  report 
should  go  to  the  salesmen  in  such  cases  as  those  in  which 
the  salesmen  can  not  come  to  the  office.  In  personal 
canvassing  the  men  will  report  to  the  office  every  night, 
and  every  morning  will  be  sent  out  with  a  stimulating 
little  talk.  Traveling  men  on  the  road  will  often  report 
once  a  week,  sometimes  spending  every  Saturday  at  the 
office  to  wait  on  customers  who  call,  and  to  get  in  touch 
with  what  the  rest  of  the  organization  is  doing. 

Salesmen  accomplish  far  more,  as  a  rule,  if  the  gang 
spirit  can  be  aroused,  just  as  when  a  baseball-team  or  a 
football-team  plays  a  game.    Every  sportsman  knows 


MODERN  SALES  ORGANIZATION  421 


what  team-work  means,  and  so  does  every  up-to-date 
business  man.  When  salesmen  are  scattered,  special 
methods  must  be  used. 

Every  salesman  who  makes  a  hit  should  send  in  the 
story  of  just  how  he  did  it,  and  this  personal  story  of 
a  success  should  be  sent  out  to  all  the  others.  Very, 
very  seldom  does  a  salesman  lose  anything  by  giving 
away  his  secrets,  for  the  real  secrets  in  such  accounts 
remain  untold  because  they  are  so  intimately  personal 
to  the  man  himself  that  he  simply  can  not  tell  them. 
The  story  of  his  success  is  stimulating  to  all,  however. 

The  modern  quota  system  has  been  widely  adopted. 
Big  salesmen  on  high  salaries  will  sell  many  large  orders 
and  so  will  have  a  large  volume  of  sales,  and  small 
salesmen  on  small  salaries,  in  small  towns,  will  make 
small  sales.  The  quota  system  assigns  to  each  salesman, 
on  the  basis  of  his  salary  or  his  salary  and  expenses 
taken  together,  a  certain  number  of  units  which  he 
should  sell  in  a  month  or  a  week.  If  he  sells  the  quota 
assigned  him,  which  no  one  knows  but  himself  and  the 
♦  sales-manager,  he  is  ranked  in  the  reports  at  100  per 
cent.  If  he  sells  less  than  his  quota,  his  rank  may  be 
75  per  cent,  or  60  per  cent.  He  may  sell  more 
than  his  quota,  when  he  will  rank  at  125  per  cent,  or 
150  per  cent.  The  quotas  are  secret,  but  the  percentages 
are  published  weekly  or  monthly  in  a  bulletin.  This 
puts  all  salesmen  on  the  same  basis  and  gives  all  a  fair 
chance  to  make  a  high  percentage.  The  competition 
thus  created  is  highly  stimulating,  and  no  secrets  are 
divulged,  and  no  salesmen  feel  they  have  not  a  fair 
chance.  Usually  the  small  salesmen  will  make  the  best 
percentages  at  the  first.  Later  the  big  salesmen,  who 
have  been  loafing  on  their  jobs  a  little,  will  wake  up  and 
show  what  they  can  do  by  extra  exertion.  This  is  an 
excellent  way  of  keeping  the  team  running  even.  Some- 


422        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


times  these  percentage  competitions  are  treated  as  a 
baseball-game  and  scores  are  posted  on  a  bulletin-board, 
which  is  reproduced  and  sent  out  to  all  the  salesmen; 
or  the  salesmen's  names  are  put  on  a  running-track. 
Prizes,  usually  small  and  unimportant,  yet  something  to 
rouse  the  spirit  of  playing  a  game  and  playing  it  to  win, 
are  useful.  Again,  all  the  salesmen  in  one  territory  will 
compete  against  all  the  salesmen  in  another  territory. 

Mimeograph  bulletins  may  easily  be  illustrated  with 
interesting  tho  crude  little  pictures.  In  large  organiza- 
tions a  weekly  or  monthly  illustrated  house-organ  which 
gives  all  the  personal  news  of  all  the  salesmen,  including 
their  illnesses,  their  marriages,  their  difficulties,  and 
their  successes,  as  well  as  the  news  of  competitions,  are 
highly  effective. 

The  total  cost  to  sell  each  unit  of  goods  in  the  case 
of  each  salesman  should  be  carefully  figured  out.  In 
scattered  territory  the  cost  to  sell  will  be  higher  than 
in  solid,  compact  territory;  but  the  sales-manager  must 
have  this  always  before  him  on  each  salesman's  report- 
card,  and  if  a  cost-to-sell  unit  is  assigned  to  a  salesman 
as  a  quota,  his  percentage  above  or  below  may  be  a  useful 
point  for  public  competition  as  well  as  the  total  amount 
of  sales.  This  will  help  to  educate  the  salesman  on  the 
importance  of  economy. 

Questions  on  Modern  Sales  Organization 

1.  What  was  the  old  idea  of  salesmanship  ? 

2.  Describe  the  way  in  which  the  sales-manager 
trains  young  salesmen. 

3.  How  are  lists  of  dealer  prospects  prepared  ? 

4.  How  are  lists  of  consumers  prepared  for  a 
specialty  ? 

5.  Illustrate  the  value  to  a  retailer  of  getting  lists 
of  prospects  to  be  followed  up. 


MODERN  SALES  ORGANIZATION  423 


6.  How  is  the  first  order  figured  in  relation  to 
ultimate  profits? 

7.  When  the  amount  of  money  will  justify  it,  how 
are  customers  educated  in  advance  for  the  visits  of 
salesmen  ? 

8.  How  much  might  be  expected  out  of  the  direct 
mail-orders  from  this  circular  work? 

9.  Illustrate  in  detail  what  may  be  accomplished  by 
the  educative  method. 

10.  What  differences  in  salesmen  must  a  sales-man- 
ager overcome? 

11.  What  kinds  of  records  of  salesmen's  work  should 
a  sales-manager  have?  How  are  they  kept  up  to  the 
mark? 

12.  Describe  the  modern  quota  system.  How  is 
interest  kept  up  ? 


IV 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SALESMANSHIP 

The  Five  Factors 

In  every  sale  there  are  five  factors  which  we  must 
take  fully  into  account : 

1.  The  personality  of  the  salesman, 

2.  The  character  and  situation  of  the  customer, 

3.  The  goods  to  be  sold, 

4.  The  competition, 

5.  The  sale. 

Unless  the  salesman  bears  himself  so  as  to  command 
respectful  attention,  the  customer  will  simply  refuse  to 
do  business  with  him.  Moreover,  unless  the  salesman 
knows  what  he  is  about  he  will  not  have  respectful 
attention. 

No  one  can  make  a  sale  to  every  person,  nor  ought 
any  one  to  make  a  sale  to  a  customer  unless  it  is  for  the 
good  of  the  customer  that  such  a  sale  be  made.  The 
condition  and  situation  of  the  customer  is,  therefore,  a 
vital  element,  as  well  as  his  attitude  of  mind.  The 
salesman  must  inform  himself  of  the  real  needs  of  the 
customer  before  he  can  even  begin  his  work  of  educating 
the  mind  of  that  customer. 

At  the  same  time  the  goods  must  be  right,  and  the 
salesman  must  know  them. 

In  every  sale  there  is  some  sort  of  competition. 
Either  there  are  other  goods  of  the  same  sort  which  the 
customer  ought  to  consider,  or  else  there  is  the  general 
competition  between  all  the  other  things  on  which  money 
can  be  spent,  and  the  goods  offered.    "We  must  always 

424 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SALESMANSHIP  425 


remember  that  there  are  few  things  without  which  we 
can  not  get  along  in  this  world,  and  nearly  always 
there  must  be  a  decision  whether  it  is  wise  to  spend 
money  on  this  particular  thing  or  not. 

Finally,  there  is  the  sale,  on  which  all  the  art  of 
salesmanship  must  be  concentrated.  Unless  the  first 
four  factors  are  right,  and  are  mastered,  the  art  or 
science  of  salesmanship  does  not  come  into  play  at  all. 
The  art  of  salesmanship  simply  gives  effectiveness  to  a 
combination  of  factors  which  otherwise  are  favorable. 
Selling  poor  goods  to  people  who  ought  not  to  pay  for 
them  is  a  crime,  and  going  out  as  a  salesman  unless  you 
are  prepared  for  the  work  is  pure  folly.  There  are 
plenty  of  opportunities,  however,  where  the  first  four 
factors  can  meet  in  fairly  good  balance,  and  it  is  on 
such  that  we  should  now  fix  our  attention  in  a  study 
of  the  principles  of  successful  salesmanship. 

General  Preparation  for  Selling 

Before  undertaking  in  any  way  to  sell  goods  the  wise 
salesman  will  make  a  very  thorough  preparation. 

Boys  and  girls  are  best  prepared  for  retail  selling  by 
handling  stock.  When  the  salesmen  pull  down  bolts 
of  goods,  the  stock-boys  or  -girls  carefully  roll  them  up 
and  put  them  in  place  again.  This  seems  like  simple 
work,  but  it  furnishes  the  best  possible  chance  for  them 
to  learn  the  character  of  the  goods,  their  differences, 
prices,  etc.  Also  they  can  not  help  hearing  constantly 
the  way  in  which  accomplished  salesmen  make  their 
sales.  Once  a  boy  in  a  school  was  found  to  be  a  re- 
markable letter-writer,  tho  he  had  no  experience.  In- 
quiry revealed  the  fact  that  he  had  wrapt  up  bundles 
on  the  other  side  of  a  partition  where  he  could  hear 
the  daily  dictation  of  letters  by  the  manager  of  a  large 
concern  who  was  noted  as  a  good  correspondent.  Listen- 


426        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ing  day  by  day,  he  had  unconsciously  imbibed  the  art 
of  letter- writing.  Many  a  stock-boy  engaged  in  the 
mechanical  work  of  putting  bolts  of  goods  back  on 
shelves  has  imbibed  the  art  of  salesmanship,  learned  the 
goods,  and  also  learned  what  customers  are  and  how 
they  act.  "Wholesale  salesmen  are  usually  trained  as 
stock-boys  in  the  same  way.  They  take  care  of  the 
stock-rooms  in  the  wholesale  house,  putting  the  goods  in 
order,  helping  the  buyer  order  stock  when  it  gets  low, 
and  listening  to  the  salesmen  when  they  come  in  and 
show  some  visiting  customer  the  line.  Specialty-sales- 
men such  as  book-solicitors,  or  salesmen  of  such  office- 
appliances  as  cash-registers  or  adding-machines,  must 
go  through  a  special  school  to  learn  the  fine  points  of 
the  canvass  on  each  special  item,  the  difficulties  that  will 
come  up  and  how  they  are  to  be  met,  and  what  other 
salesmen  have  found  to  be  the  best  approaches  and 
methods  of  closing  sales  in  each  special  line. 

Besides  this  general  preparation,  every  salesman 
should  inform  himself  very  thoroughly  about  the  com- 
peting lines  of  goods  and  the  arguments  of  competing 
salesmen.  These  competitive  facts  and  thoughts  will  be 
in  the  mind  of  the  prospective  customer  whether  any 
mention  is  made  of  them  or  not.  The  salesman  will 
have  to  face  a  man  in  whose  mind  is  the  thought  of 
those  competing  goods,  and  the  argument  of  the  other 
salesman.  It  stands  to  reason  that  success  in  selling 
can  not  be  attained  if  the  salesman  is  ignorant  of  just 
what  this  unmentioned  mental  reality  is.  He  can  not 
shape  his  canvass  so  as  to  win  unless  he  knows  against 
what  he  is  fighting.  Yet  neglect  to  study  competition 
is  one  of  the  commonest  faults  among  American  business 
men.  Failure  results  again  and  again  because  of  this 
unknown  factor ;  yet  no  effort  is  made  to  find  out  about 
it  or  understand  it. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SALESMANSHIP  427 


The  person  who  goes  into  any  business  without  having 
served  some  sort  of  apprenticeship  in  that  business  is  a 
fool. 

Any  person  who,  having  served  his  apprenticeship  in 
his  business,  does  not  thoroughly  investigate  the  special 
class  of  customers,  in  the  special  location  where  he  in- 
tends to  conduct  his  business,  to  know  that  he  has  a 
reasonably  rich  field,  is  a  fool. 

When  both  of  these  precautions  have  been  taken,  the 
person  who  does  not  inform  himself  just  what  his  com- 
petitors have,  and  just  what  their  arguments  are,  is,  to 
say  the  least,  a  negligent  business  man. 

As  a  rule,  there  is  not  much  lack  of  attention  to  having 
the  best  available  goods  to  sell  at  right  prices ;  but  this 
is  the  fourth  requisite. 

Steps  in  Making  a  Sale 

There  are  five  distinct  steps  in  making  a  sale. 

1.  Special  preparation*  for  appeal  to  the  prospect 
before  he  is  approached  at  all. 

This  preparation  may  consist  of  a  series  of  educative 
'   letters  or  circulars. 

It  may  consist  of  getting  information  about  him  from 
Dun's  or  Bradstreet's,  from  directories,  or  best  of  all 
from  neighbors.  Even  the  house-to-house  canvasser  al- 
ways asks  the  name  of  the  person  living  in  the  next 
house.  Solicitors  for  sets  of  books  get  personal  intro- 
ductions. Sellers  of  stocks  and  bonds  get  personal 
recommendations  from  one  person  to  another,  following 
out  a  regular  chain  of  acquaintance  as  much  as  does 
the  bank  with  its  chain  of  personal  identifications  before 
cashing  checks  or  opening  accounts. 

What  this  preparation  may  be  is  well  illustrated  by  a 


♦  This  step  was  suggested  by  Mr.  R.  H.  Grant,  sales-manager  of  the 
National  Cash  Register  Co.,  who  lays  great  emphasis  upon  it. 


428        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


story  of  the  sale  of  a  Packard  truck  to  a  wholesale  grocer 
in  New  York  City.  This  concern  had  many  wagon- 
routes  running  all  over  the  city.  For  a  year  and  a  half 
the  salesman  had  been  watching  for  a  chance  to  get  an 
entering  wedge,  for  it  meant  a  big  order  some  time. 
When  at  last  he  received  a  card  from  the  manager  of 
the  grocery  house,  saying  that  one  of  their  wagon-routes 
had  broken  down  and  they  were  considering  trying  out 
an  auto-truck  on  that  one  route,  he  was  on  hand  even 
before  the  hour  of  ten  which  had  been  set  the  next 
morning,  so  that  he  should  get  the  first  intei'view. 
When  he  entered  the  manager's  office  and  was  asked 
what  he  had  to  say  he  produced  a  sheet  on  which  he  had 
tabulated  the  entire  list  of  items  of  cost  of  maintaining 
and  operating  the  wagon-route,  and  by  the  side  of  that 
the  cost  of  operating  the  auto-truck ;  not  an  estimate,  but 
the  actual  figures  taken  from  another  house  to  which 
trucks  had  been  sold.  The  comparison  showed  a  saving, 
and,  of  course,  the  manager  was  imprest.  He  wanted  to 
know  where  the  salesman  got  such  exact  information  in 
regard  to  the  cost  of  operating  the  wagon-route,  and 
whether  his  figures  were  accurate  or  not.  So  he  rang 
for  the  barn-boss  to  be  called,  and  introduced  him.  But 
the  salesman  and  the  barn-boss  had  been  acquainted  for 
a  year  and  a  half  and  had  figured  out  that  table  of  costs 
together.  The  manager  then  called  up  the  other  house 
that  owned  the  auto-truck  of  which  the  salesman  had 
given  the  cost-record,  and  verified  that  cost  to  a  penny. 
The  salesman  had  seen  to  it  that  the  manager  of  the 
other  business  knew  exactly  what  his  costs  had  been. 

Then  came  the  question  of  what  sort  of  body  should 
be  put  on  the  chassis.  The  salesman  recommended  a 
special  body-maker,  who  was  waiting  outside.  He  was 
called  in.  What  would  he  recommend  ?  If  the  manager 
would  step  out  to  the  stable  he  would  show  him  a  body 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SALESMANSHIP  429 


all  painted  up,  with  the  old  design  of  the  house  adapted 
to  the  new  kind  of  vehicle.  The  superintendent  of 
delivery  was  called  to  see  what  he  thought  of  it,  and  it 
appeared  that  he  had  helped  to  work  it  out.  It  seemed 
just  the  thing. 

With  such  preparation  as  that,  the  sale  was  made  even 
before  the  salesman  was  called  on  for  his  arguments; 
and  the  salesmen  of  the  competing  auto-trucks  who  were 
waiting  in  the  outer  office  were  not  even  invited  in  to 
make  their  pleas :  the  order  was  given  then  and  there. 

The  first  step  is  to  find  out  just  what  the  prospect 
ought  to  have,  and  then  make  your  offering  so  it  will 
precisely  fit  the  need  that  has  been  studied  out,  or 
present  it  in  the  aspect  that  will  be  most  likely  to  suit. 
In  these  days  scientific  sales  are  made  in  the  prepara- 
tion, before  the  salesman  even  sees  the  prospect. 

2.  Attention.  If  by  circularizing  or  otherwise  you 
can  make  a  prospect  invite  you  to  call  on  him,  you 
obviously  have  his  attention  even  before  you  reach  him. 
You  are  doing  him  a  favor  by  calling  on  him  and  you 
need  offer  no  apologies.  That  is  the  best  kind  of  atten- 
tion to  have. 

If  you  go  to  solicit  a  man  who  is  indifferent  to  you, 
the  first  step  toward  making  a  sale  is  to  get  his  full, 
favorable  attention. 

The  seller  of  a  gas-lighter  from  house  to  house  gets 
attention  by  snapping  his  lighter  and  making  sparks 
which  fascinate  the  eye. 

The  clever  salesman  who  has  prepared  himself  in 
advance  so  that  he  knows  something  of  the  problems  of 
the  prospect,  gets  favorable  attention  by  asking  a  ques- 
tion which  touches  a  vital  point  in  the  prospect's  mind, 
something  he  has  worried  about.  Such  a  question,  in  a 
sympathetic  tone,  invites  a  confidence,  and  a  confidence 
from  a  prospective  customer  marks  him  as  already  on 
your  side. 


430        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Besides  showing  something,  and  asking  a  question  that 
is  personal,  there  are  various  other  ways  of  getting 
favorable  attention,  most  of  which  are  special  with  the 
salesman.  Some  salesmen  get  attention  by  their  pleasing 
manner  and  dignified  good  breeding  as  shown  in  their 
carriage.  Most  people  will  stop  to  look  at  a  particularly 
well-bred  man.  Others  have  discovered  some  curiosity- 
arousing  statement  which  immediately  challenges. 
Certain  business  men  can  be  reached  only  by  a  bold 
challenge. 

The  good  salesman  seldom  or  never  presents  a  card. 
With  those  he  has  met  before  he  assumes  an  intimacy 
of  personal  acquaintance  that  has  no  need  of  cards. 
With  those  who  are  strangers  he  reserves  himself  till 
he  can  make  his  own  impression  instead  of  allowing  a 
false  impression  to  be  formed  from  a  hasty  glance  at  a 
card.  It  is  always  safer  to  divulge  as  little  as  possible 
in  advance  of  actual  personal  contact.  A  name  may  be 
given  if  a  secretary  demands  it,  but  the  name  given  by 
word  of  mouth  is  usually  most  efficacious.  *^Just  say 
Mr.  Jones  would  like  to  see  him,"  or  some  such  phrase 
has  broken  down  a  barrier  of  that  sort.  But  do  not 
even  give  the  name  unless  forced  to  do  so.  A  card 
reveals  the  business  as  a  rule,  and  many  men  turn 
down  the  idea  of  a  business  or  jump  to  conclusions  about 
it  without  even  giving  a  thought  to  the  man.  The  name 
only  demands  attention  to  the  man,  so  the  man  at  least 
gets  his  chance. 

In  case  a  prospect  is  writing  letters  or  talking  to 
some  one  else,  it  is  wise  to  keep  absolutely  still  till  com- 
plete attention  can  be  had.  If  you  are  invited  to  talk 
away  just  the  same,  politely  decline  and  offer  to  come 
again  at  some  more  suitable  time.  If  necessary,  say 
frankly,  ^'I  can't  talk,  Mr.  Jones,  to  a  man  who  is  trying 
to  do  something  else.    I  always  feel  I  am  disturbing 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SALESMANSHIP  431 


him,  and  I  can't  free  myself  from  that  feeling.''  Then 
ask  for  just  five  minutes  in  which  to  present  your  case 
at  some  future  time.  If  the  man  offers  it  right  then, 
go  in  and  make  the  most  of  it. 

3.  Creating  desire  for  the  thing  in  general.  Atten 
tion  secured,  the  first  step  is  to  find  out  the  state  of 
mind  of  the  prospect  with  reference  to  wanting  any- 
thing at  all  in  your  line  of  business.  Ten  chances  to 
one  he  does  not  know  whether  he  wants  anything  like 
that  or  not.  You've  got  to  draw  him  out,  discover  his 
circumstances,  his  attitude  of  mind,  and  the  value  to 
him  of  having  certain  goods  so  you  can  begin  to  fan  up 
his  desire.  It  is  useless  to  offer  your  goods  to  a  man 
who  thinks  he  does  not  want  anything  of  the  sort  at  all. 
The  first  step  toward  resolve  to  buy  or  even  toward 
desire  for  your  goods  is  desire  for  some  goods  of  that 
description.  If  you  can  draw  him  out  as  to  what  he 
has  already,  what  difficulties  he  has,  or  what  oppor- 
tunities he  has  that  he  is  not  improving,  you  get  the 
customer  squarely  on  his  own  ground;  you  start  with 
him  and  not  with  yourself  or  your  goods.    The  passion 

»  to  talk  about  oneself  is  such  that  most  young  salesmen 
plunge  at  once  into  the  subject  of  their  goods.  The  first 
great  lesson  they  must  learn  is  to  reserve  themselves, 
and  begin  by  talking  about  the  customer  and  his  troubles 
or  chances,  or  personal  situation.  That  is  the  only  thing 
that  puts  a  man  at  once  into  your  power.  It  is  a  simple 
and  easy  thing  to  do  if  you  can  only  hold  yourself  to 
it.  When  you  have  once  got  a  man  on  his  own  ground 
you  can  often  do  your  best  work  in  fanning  up  his 
desire  to  have  some  goods  like  yours,  even  without  men- 
tioning yourself  at  all.  Desire  in  general  for  something 
of  that  sort  is  the  first  step  which  the  prospect  takes 
toward  you. 

4.  Developing  interest  in  your  goods.    When  you 


432        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


know  that  you  have  a  desire  for  something  in  the  line 
of  your  goods,  then  and  not  till  then  is  your  prospect 
ready  to  have  you  explain  briefly  but  emphatically,  so 
he  will  not  miss  a  single  point,  the  special  advantages 
and  merits  of  your  goods.  Along  with  the  explanation 
of  just  how  your  system  works,  or  just  what  your  goods 
are,  should  go  casual  mention  of  the  most  important 
people  who  have  bought  them,  and  the  most  convincing 
remarks  others  have  made  or  letters  they  have  written, 
by  way  of  proof  that  you  are  telling  the  truth.  See 
the  fuller  development  of  these  points  under  Salesman- 
ship in  Letters  and  Advertising. 

5.  Closing  the  sale.  To  close  a  sale  it  is  necessary  to 
get  a  decision  to  buy,  to  secure  an  act  of  the  will.  If 
the  preceding  steps  have  been  properly  taken,  this  will 
be  easy.    And  yet  it  has  a  technic  of  its  own. 

First,  the  important  thing  is  to  get  minor  decisions  as 
you  go  along — first,  a  decision  to  listen  to  you  patiently 
till  you  have  finished  your  story ;  then  a  decision  that  it 
really  would  be  a  good  thing  to  have  something  of  that 
sort  (in  general)  ;  then  a  decision  to  try  your  goods  if 
it  can  be  done  without  risk;  finally  a  decision  to  take 
your  word  as  a  guaranty  against  risk,  if  indeed  you  do 
not  give  the  approval-privilege,  as  do  most  modern 
houses  that  are  on  the  square. 

Second,  in  order  to  avoid  talking  a  person  out  of 
buying  after  you  have  talked  him  in,  it  is  important  to 
cover  the  whole  ground  briefly  and  then  try  to  get  your 
order  by  asking  for  it  or  acting  as  if  you  were  going 
to  ask  for  it,  so  that  the  prospect  feels  the  pressure  of 
your  will.  You  may  or  you  may  not  give  the  direct 
command  to  sign  an  order-slip.  You  may  write  the 
signature  for  the  man,  printing  it  out  so  there  will  be 
no  mistake  in  the  spelling,  or  avoid  getting  any  signa- 
ture at  all  by  simply  taking  an  oral  order  as  most 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OP  SALESMANSHIP  433 


wholesale  men  do,  writing  down  at  dictation.  If  the 
man  lets  you  do  those  things,  you  have  won  his  will. 

Third,  the  wise  salesman  will  always  have  a  few  good 
strong  arguments  in  reserve  so  that  if  he  fails  to  close 
the  first  time  he  can  compel  a  favorable  decision  by 
bringing  up  his  reserve  guns  and  firing  in  a  few  hot 
shot  that  were  not  expected.  That  often  disconcerts  the 
prospect,  who  in  his  confusion  yields  to  a  sudden  demand 
for  an  order. 

A  good  salesman  who  has  written  admirably  on  the 
subject  has  said  that  you  should  always  keep  a  prospect 
on  the  defensive.  That  implies  that  he  may  feel  you 
are  getting  him.  It  is  better  to  keep  him  on  what  may 
be  called  neutral  ground,  certainly  never  letting  him 
put  you  on  the  defensive,  and  never  making  him  feel 
that  he  must  defend  himself,  until  suddenly  you  unmask 
your  batteries  and  watch  him  surrender  without  a 
murmur.  But  above  all  things  don't  let  him  get  you 
in  a  corner. 

Knox,  in  his  book,  Business  Efficiency,"  illustrates 
this  with  one  question :  ^ '  How  soon  can  you  get  an  auto 
•  like  thatr'  Right  away,''  is  an  answer  which  permits 
the  prospect  to  recoil,  think  it  over,  and  say  he  will  wait 
till  next  week,  since  there  is  no  particular  reason  why 
he  should  decide  then.  ^^When  do  you  want  it?"  or, 
*^When  do  you  have  to  have  it?"  is  a  return  question 
which  keeps  the  prospect  on  the  defensive  and  makes 
him  commit  himself  still  further.  When  a  prospect 
gets  to  the  point  of  asking,  * '  How  soon  can  you  get  it  ? " 
you  know  he  is  ready  to  surrender  if  you  handle  him 
rightly;  but  there  is  many  a  salesman  who  misses  his 
chance  even  then  by  letting  himself  get  into  a  corner 
instead  of  keeping  his  prospect  there. 

The  principle  of  never  letting  the  prospect  put  you 
in  an  awkward  position  is  illustrated  by  the  rule  that 


434        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


when  a  customer  has  promised  to  go  at  a  certain  hour 
to  see  your  goods,  you  should  always  call  and  take  him 
to  see  them,  never  wait  for  him  to  come  by  himself. 
Twice  out  of  three  times  he  will  fail  you  if  left  to  him- 
self, on  some  excuse  or  other,  and  you  appear  foolish 
and  weak.  It  is  foolish  and  dangerous  to  wait  about 
for  any  man.  Always  go  and  get  him  at  the  hour  set, 
right  on  the  dot.  It  is  as  bad  to  get  there  ahead  of 
time  as  behind  time.  Walking  in  just  as  the  clock 
points  to  the  minute  is  always  very  effective.  The  pros- 
pect glances  at  the  clock,  then  at  you,  and  remarks, 
see  you  are  right  on  the  dot. ' '  It  pleases  him  and  helps 
your  cause. 

You  should  also  observe  that  desire  for  goods  like 
yours  and  decision  to  buy  them  are  two  entirely  different 
things.  The  desire  comes  first,  but  you  must  go  specifi- 
cally about  producing  decision  to  huy  as  the  basis  for 
closing  the  sale.  Arguments  on  the  point,  ^^Why  act 
now?"  tend  toward  decision  to  buy.  It  may  even  be 
desirable  to  talk  over  a  man's  financial  situation  with 
him  so  you  can  help  him  to  make  up  his  mind  whether 
he  really  should  afford  the  thing  or  not.  Personal  help 
to  solve  personal  problems  is  always  a  large  part  of  a 
salesman's  duty. 

Questions  on  the  Principles  of  Salesmanship 

1.  What  are  the  five  factors  in  a  sale?  Illustrate 
the  importance  of  each  of  them. 

2.  What  is  the  best  general  preparation  for  retail 
selling  ? 

3.  Why  is  it  important  that  salesmen  inform  them- 
selves about  competing  lines  of  goods? 

4.  Summarize  the  different  elements  of  success  in 
selling. 

5.  What  are  the  five  distinct  steps  in  making  a  sale  ? 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SALESMANSHIP  435 


6.  Illustrate  the  importance  and  value  of  special 
preparation  for  each  sale. 

7.  Describe  the  ways  in  which  attention  may  be 
secured. 

8.  Why  is  it  necessary  to  create  desire  for  the  thing 
in  general  before  you  introduce  your  own  special  goods  ? 

9.  How  do  you  develop  interest  in  your  own  special 
goods  ? 

10.  What  are  the  three  leading  methods  of  closing 
sales  ? 

11.  What  is  meant  by  keeping  the  prospect  always 
on  the  defensive?    How  does  Knox  illustrate  this? 

12.  How  do  you  handle  customers  who  make  appoint- 
ments to  go  to  your  hotel  at  a  certain  hour? 

13.  What  is  the  difference  between  ^  interest  in  your 
goods"  and    desire  to  buy?'' 


V 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING 

We  have  studied  the  theory  of  making  a  sale,  but 
the  practise  is  often  widely  different  from  the  theory, 
and  in  any  case  we  must  adapt  our  theory  to  circum- 
stances at  almost  every  step. 

Retail  Selling 

A  retail  salesman  waits  on  customers  who  come  to  his 
counter.  Attention,  and  the  best  kind  of  attention,  has 
been  secured  for  him.  But  there  is  important  work  for 
him  to  do,  and  he  must  concentrate  all  his  mind  on 
that.  It  is  to  make  the  sale  as  large  as  possible,  yet  be 
sure  the  customer  goes  away  feeling  pleased  with  him- 
self and  the  salesman. 

The  first  step  is  tactfully  to  draw  out  the  customer 
and  see  just  what  he  or  she  does  want.  Usually  the 
customer's  mind  is  vague.  A  want  has  been  felt,  but 
little  thought  has  been  given  as  to  how  it  can  best  be 
satisfied.  It  is  the  salesman's  business  to  clarify  the 
mind  of  the  customer,  and,  perhaps  for  the  customer's 
own  good,  turn  it  in  an  entirely  different  direction.  For 
example,  perhaps  a  customer  thinks  he  wants  a  cheap 
suit  of  clothes.  When  he  realizes  that  a  cheap  suit  will 
not  hold  its  shape  a  month,  and  he  will  feel  disgraced  to 
go  about  in  it  and  probably  throw  it  aside,  while  a  good 

436 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  437 


suit  will  wear  well  for  six  months,  he  will  realize  that 
the  cheapest  suit  in  reality  is  the  one  which  costs  a 
little  more  money,  and  he  will  go  away  feeling  that  you, 
the  salesman,  have  performed  a  real  service  in  his 
interest  even  if  you  did  get  ten  dollars  more  out  of  his 
pocket  than  he  intended  to  let  you  have. 

The  next  step  is  to  make  use  of  the  opportunity  to 
turn  the  mind  of  a  customer  to  other  articles.  A  grocery 
salesman  exclaims  as  the  customer  is  leaving:  ^^We  have 
just  got  in  a  carload  of  sweet,  juicy  Florida  oranges, 
only  45c.  a  dozen.  Better  take  some."  It  is  a  chance 
the  customer  will  not  like  to  miss.  A  customer  is  grate- 
ful to  you  for  calling  attention  to  anything  special. 

Selling  to  Dealers 

The  salesman  who  has  a  large  line  of  goods,  on  which 
there  is  keen  competition  with  other  salesmen  who  carry 
similar  lines,  will  often  find  it  difficult  even  to  get  atten- 
tion. The  storekeeper  is  busy  and  does  not  care  to  take 
the  time  to  talk.  He  may  have  spent  so  much  money 
already  he  is  afraid  of  being  tempted  to  spend  more. 
Perhaps  business  has  been  dull  and  he  has  made  up  his 
mind  to  rest  on  his  oars  till  he  has  sold  off  some  of 
his  stock. 

The  book  of  instructions  given  to  National  Cash 
Register  salesmen  says,  ^^You  must  not  proceed  on  the 
theory  that  storekeepers  usually  know  what  their  own 
best  interests  are.  They  don't.  No  man  always  does. 
The  majority  of  men  are  going  contrary  to  their  best 
interests  every  day.  They  seem  to  be  almost  wilfully 
blind  to  the  things  that  would  help  them  and  make  them 
better  off." 

Walking  in  and  saying  to  a  dealer,  ^^I  suppose  you 
don't  want  anything  to-day,"  is  the  most  certain  method 
of  getting  the  reply,   ''No,  nothing,"   that  can  be 


438        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


imagined.  If,  however,  a  salesman  makes  inquiries  and 
looks  around  the  shelves  or  inquires  of  the  stock-boy 
what  is  on  hand,  he  may  say  as  he  enters,  *^I  see 
you  have  only  three  brooms  left.  Our  Little  Polly  sell- 
ing at  30  cents,  with  colored  handles,  will  sell  two  to 
one  of  what  you  have  been  carrying.  Couldn't  you  use 
five  dozen  ? ' '  Such  an  opening  would  at  least  challenge 
attention,  and  if  an  order  for  brooms  was  not  forth- 
coming, it  might  open  the  way  for  something  else. 

The  dealer  is  in  business  to  make  money.  If  you  set 
stedf astly  out  to  help  him  make  money  and  you  are 
successful,  he  will  be  your  friend  beyond  any  question 
and  will  give  you  orders  on  standard  lines  in  preference 
to  giving  them  to  some  other  salesman.  The  first  step 
toward  success  is  finding  a  way  to  be  of  service  to  the 
prospective  customer,  and  if  you  can't  do  it  in  any  other 
way  you  want  to  draw  him  out  and  make  him  tell  you. 
If  you  can  get  him  to  go  over  his  stock  with  you,  item 
by  item,  you  are  certain  to  discover  some  item  here  or 
there  on  which  you  can  really  introduce  him  to  a  profit- 
able deal. 

Holding  such  a  customer  depends  on  your  wisdom  in 
selling  him  the  right  things,  and  continaing  to  take  an 
interest  in  what  you  sell  him  till  it  is  gone  from  his 
floor.  It  is  sometimes  good  policy  to  take  back  the 
goods  on  which  you  have  made  a  mistake.  Or,  perhaps, 
you  will  have  to  devise  selling-methods  to  enable  him  to 
make  them  move.  The  salesman  who  thinks  his  work 
is  finished  when  the  order  is  booked  makes  a  big  mistake. 
Success  lies  in  the  year's  totals  and  not  in  single  sales. 
The  small  must  always  be  subordinated  to  the  larger 
interest. 

It  often  happens  that  a  dealer  is  stocked  with  a  certain 
article  and  says  he  will  wait  till  you  come  around  again. 
Three  or  four  months  later  you  call  to  find  he  has  just 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  489 


bought  of  some  other  salesman.  How  are  you  going  to 
forestall  that? 

First,  don't  waste  your  first  opportunity  just  because 
the  dealer  is  stocked.  Show  him  plainly  the  merits  of 
your  goods  in  comparison  with  others.  Find  out  exactly 
when  he  will  need  more  stock.  Set  the  date  down  in 
your  notebook.  Get  him,  if  possible,  to  give  you  an 
order  deliverable  at  that  future  date,  and  hold  it  till 
the  time  comes.  At  any  rate,  get  him  to  promise  to  see 
you  before  he  places  his  order  with  any  one  else.  When 
the  date  approaches,  write  him  and  remind  him  of  his 
promise. 

A  dealer  will  often  consult  his  sales-people,  and  the 
salesman  must  have  their  good  will.  A  dress-shield 
salesman  finds  it  useful  to  present  a  pair  of  shields  to 
each  of  the  girls  behind  the  counters,  with  his  com- 
pliments. Or,  as  he  walks  in,  he  casually  places  a 
sample  of  his  goods  beside  those  he  finds  lying  on  the 
counter,  and  points  out  to  the  head  saleswoman  the 
finer  points  of  difference. 

A  salesman  with  a  wholesale  line  will  very  often  give 
all  his  attention  to  certain  staples  on  which,  perhaps,  the 
profit  is  small,  instead  of  studying  over  his  entire  line 
to  see  what  new  items  he  may  introduce  to  old  customers 
or  what  items  will  earn  more  profit  for  the  house.  It  is 
profit  the  house  is  after,  not  volume  of  sales.  A  large 
wholesale  grocery  house  once  resolved  to  look  into  the 
sales  its  men  were  making.  Some  of  the  old-line  men 
had  very  handsome  gross  sales,  but  on  investigation  it 
was  found  that  they  were  selling  such  staples  as  sugar 
to  a  few  large  buyers.  The  more  profitable  specialties 
were  slighted,  and  the  more  troublesome  small  customers 
were  not  visited.  These  salesmen  had  large  salaries, 
but  the  small  profits  on  their  sales  made  them  represent  a 
loss  to  the  house.    Some  of  them  were  so  wedded  to 


440        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


gross  sales  and  found  it  so  hard  to  pick  up  the  loose 
ends  and  develop  their  business  on  thorough  and  scien- 
tific lines  that  they  had  to  be  displaced  by  younger  men, 
who  were  willing  to  build  up  on  correct  lines. 

Selling  Specialties 

The  perfection  of  salesmanship  is  found  when  a  person 
devotes  himself  to  one  thing  till  he  is  absolute  master  of 
it.  Hence  the  specialty  salesman  handling,  for  example, 
a  cash-register  or  a  typewriter,  a  gas-lighter  or  a  pencil- 
sharpener,  a  special  brand  of  underwear  or  a  special 
make  of  corset,  becomes  the  model  for  the  whole  selling 
world. 

The  retail  or  wholesale  salesman  with  a  line  of  goods 
can  not  very  well  follow  a  set  selling-talk,  tho  as  a 
matter  of  fact  he  should  be  supplied  with  many  selling- 
talks.  It  is  the  specialty  salesman  who  must  have  his 
selling-talk  thoroughly  worked  out  before  he  sets  out 
at  all. 

First,  he  goes  to  a  selected  prospect.  It  may  be  a 
person  who  has  answered  an  advertisement  or  a  circular 
letter.  Or  it  may  be  a  person  in  a  house  on  a  certain 
selected  street.  He  prepares  himself  by  finding  out  in 
advance  as  much  as  possible  about  the  prospective  cus- 
tomer. At  any  rate  he  inquires  at  the  adjoining  house 
the  name  of  the  person,  so  when  he  enters  he  can  ask 
for  ^^Mrs.  Jones,''  or  whatever  the  name  may  be. 

Then  he  gets  full  and  undivided  attention  by  some 
special  method,  unless  that  has  been  secured  for  him  in 
advance  by  advertising.  Until  he  has  that  attention  he 
refuses  to  begin  his  selling-talk.  If  the  person  is  too 
busy  to  see  him  he  tries  to  make  another  appointment. 
In  any  case,  he  holds  himself  in  reserve,  or  uses  some 
device  or  remark  which  will  secure  for  him  proper  at- 
tention. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PEOCESS  OP  SELLING  441 

Before  launching  into  the  merits  of  his  goods,  he  tries 
to  get  into  sympathetic  harmony  with  his  prospect. 
The  prospect  is  interested  in  his  own  troubles,  and,  of 
course,  the  salesman  is  interested  in  his,  but  the  sales- 
man must  learn  to  think  first  of  the  other  fellow  and 
then  of  himself.  In  many  cases,  however,  not  only  will 
the  salesman  have  attention,  but  he  will  have  real  interest 
already  developed  in  his  own  goods.  The  cases  are  few, 
however,  when  it  is  justifiable  to  plunge  at  once  into 
the  merits  of  your  own  goods.  The  rule  should  always 
be,  the  customer's  personal  interests  first,  one's  own 
afterward ! 

The  first  consideration  is  presenting  what  you  have 
to  sell  in  a  clear  and  understandable  style.  Samples 
and  models  are  usually  necessary.  Pictures  may  some- 
times be  used,  by  preference  original  photographs.  The 
explanation  should  be  entirely  free  from  any  confusing 
elements.  The  salesman  must  practise  over  and  over 
again  till  he  can  tell  a  clear,  direct,  condensed,  simple 
story.  Any  suggestion  of  vagueness  or  haziness  may 
prove  fatal. 

If  a  man  smokes  a  five-cent  cigar  he  will  not  be  in- 
fluenced by  the  fact  that  Morgan,  Carnegie,  Vanderbilt, 
Astor,  and  Rockefeller  smoke  a  certain  fifty-cent  cigar, 
for  he  is  not  interested  in  fifty-cent  cigars  at  all,  but 
if  he  is  becoming  interested  in  a  certain  ten-cent  cigar, 
and  learns  that  these  men  smoke  this  particular  brand 
and  like  it,  it  produces  a  tremendous  effect  on  him. 
People  are  like  sheep.  In  their  class  they  want  to  go 
with  the  crowd.  What  happens  out  of  their  class  in- 
fluences them  little. 

Until  a  man  thinks  he  himself  likes  your  goods,  after 
you  have  explained  them  to  him  fully  and  clearly,  his 
decision  to  buy  is  powerfully  affected  by  knowing  what 
other  persons  of  his  acquaintance  have  decided  favor- 


442        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 

ably,  or  even  persons  of  whom  he  has  heard,  or  strangers 
he  can  identify.  It  often  happens  that  a  new  line  of 
goods  can  not  be  sold  until  a  start  has  been  made.  The 
easiest  customers  are  taken  first,  especially  those  who 
are  personally  known  to  the  salesman.  He  goes  to  his 
friends  first  of  all.  Then  when  he  goes  to  strangers  he 
can  say,  So-and-so  has  bought,  or  he  can  show  original 
testimonial  letters  from  them.  A  book  salesman  will 
often  work  in  a  town  for  three  or  four  weeks  without 
getting  an  order.  Then  one  will  decide  in  his  favor, 
and  he  spreads  the  news  of  that,  and  others  come,  fol- 
lowing like  sheep,  once  the  ice  is  broken.  People  are 
most  influenced  by  those  they  know.  Therefore  strong 
printed  testimonials  from  distinguished  persons  do  not 
have  the  weight  locally  that  local  testimonials  have. 
The  specialty  salesman  will  therefore  set  out  first  of  all 
to  get  the  local  clergyman,  school  superintendent,  lawyer, 
or  business  man,  or  the  officers  of  certain  clubs  or  other 
organizations.  These  are  often  more  intellectual  and 
independent  in  judgment.  They  know  the  distinguished 
persons  who  have  given  printed  testimonials,  at  least 
they  know  them  by  reputation,  and  then  they  in  turn 
vouch  for  the  goods  to  the  local  people,  who  depend  on 
them  for  wise  decisions.  Getting  the  entering  wedge 
in  this  way  is  very  often  essential  to  making  real  sales. 

The  Primary  Selling-Talk 

Minds  move  with  different  rates  of  celerity.  Some 
men  will  size  up  a  proposal  and  make  their  decisions 
in  three  or  four  minutes.  Others  will  do  nothing  till 
they  have  thought  about  the  matter  for  an  hour.  Yet 
even  the  quickest  decider  does  not  care  to  act  till  he 
has  got  an  idea  of  all  sides  of  the  subject,  till  he  has 
thought  about  every  essential  point. 

The  primary  selling-talk  is  a  brief,  vigorous,  but  com- 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  443 


plete  presentation  of  the  whole  sales  argument,  just  as 
a  sales-letter  should  be  a  brief  but  complete  sales-talk, 
the  circular  a  longer  and  fuller  talk  for  those  who  wish 
more  than  is  given  in  the  letter,  while  the  follow-up 
is  for  those  whose  minds  must  go  over  the  subject  a 
number  of  times.  And  even  for  the  slow  thinker,  get- 
ting over  the  whole  subject  so  that  he  sees  all  sides  of 
it  at  the  outset  will  help  the  salesman  to  find  out  where 
the  pressure  needs  to  be  placed. 

In  the  primary  selling-talk  we  undertake  in  the 
briefest  ahd  most  emphatic  style  to  cover  the  entire 
subject,  starting  with  attention  secured,  development  of 
interest  in  goods  of  the  general  nature  offered,  explana- 
tion of  the  special  merits  of  our  goods  and  proof 
through  the  testimony  of  others,  and  closing  of  the  sale. 
The  good  salesman  brings  the  customer  up  to  the  point 
of  giving  an  order.  If  he  seems  to  be  ready  to  decide, 
the  salesman  proceeds  to  try  to  take  his  order.  If  it 
is  clear  that  he  is  not  ready,  the  salesman  carefully 
avoids  allowing  himself  to  be  turned  down,  draws  back, 
and  starts  on  his  secondary  selling-talk. 

The  Secondary  Selling-Talk 

The  primary  selling-talk  bears  the  same  relation  to 
the  secondary  selling-talk  that  the  sales  letter  does  to  the 
accompanying  circular.  The  man  who  is  imprest  with 
the  primary  selling-talk  wants  to  know  more  about  the 
matter  before  he  makes  up  his  mind.  So  the  salesman 
simply  starts  again  on  the  explanation  of  his  goods  from 
the  very  beginning.  If  the  primary  selling-talk  has 
been  a  success,  attention  has  been  secured  so  that  step 
does  not  need  to  be  repeated.  Arguments  on  the  value 
to  the  customer  of  having  something  of  that  sort  often 
are  the  most  important  thing  in  the  secondary  selling- 
talk.    Very  likely  in  the  primary  selling-talk  the  situa- 


444        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


tion  of  the  customer  has  not  been  canvassed  very  care- 
fully, as  his  desire  for  something  of  this  sort  was 
assumed  or  the  salesman  was  so  much  interested  in  ex- 
plaining his  goods  that  he  neglected  the  customer's  per- 
sonal situation  and  condition  of  mind. 

Or,  possibly,  the  mind  of  the  customer  has  not  become 
clear  on  the  special  advantages  of  your  goods  in  com- 
parison with  others.  On  that  point  he  may  say  nothing, 
but  the  salesman  who  knows  his  competition  thoroughly 
will  guess  the  trouble  and  proceed  to  give  an  analysis 
of  the  points  of  difference.  Usually,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  draw  a  customer  out  if  you  ask  him  what  he  particu- 
larly likes  about  the  other  goods,  if  you  do  it  in  a  spirit 
of  entire  fairness  to  your  competitor.  It  never  does 
to  knock"  a  competitor,  but  a  philosophic  and  fair 
explanation  of  difference  is  seldom  amiss,  and  often  is 
the  very  thing  that  will  decide  the  sale. 

Finally,  you  may  not  have  brought  enough  influence 
to  bear  on  the  mind  of  the  customer  to  make  him  decide 
as  you  wish.  Go  over  your  testimonials  again,  even  see 
if  you  do  not  need  to  get  some  which  you  find  lacking. 
In  any  case,  try  to  find  out  from  the  customer  just  what 
would  influence  him,  and  develop  to  the  best  advantage 
what  you  already  have. 

The  secondary  selling-talk  is  longer  than  the  first, 
and  should  be  thorough  on  all  phases  of  the  canvass  on 
which  the  salesman  knows  from  experience  special  at- 
tention is  desirable.  In  short,  it  is  the  complete  selling- 
talk,  of  which  the  primary  selling-talk  is  a  condensed 
outline. 

The  Tertiary  Selling-Talk 

At  the  close  of  the  secondary  selling-talk  the  salesman 
should  make  a  serious  effort  to  close.  The  canvass  has 
been  fully  completed,  he  has  said  all  he  feels  the  ordinary 
person  ought  to  want,  and  unless  there  is  some  special 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  445 


reason  he  ought  to  be  able  to  get  his  order.  If  he  fails, 
he  should  take  a  radically  different  line  of  attack. 

The  tertiary  selling-talk  is  made  up  of  answers  to 
objections.  The  prospect,  if  he  has  not  turned  you 
down  flatly,  may  have  in  his  mind  certain  stumbling- 
blocks  which  keep  him  from  coming  over.  They  may 
not  be  entirely  clear  to  himself,  and,  first  of  all,  it  will 
be  the  duty  of  the  salesman  to  draw  him  out  and  get 
at  his  objections.  It  is  usually  well  to  go  at  this  head- 
on  rather  than  beat  about  the  bush.  If  the  prospect 
has  objections,  the  sooner  you  find  out  what  they  are  the 
better.  Then  you  want  to  meet  them  squarely  from 
his  point  of  view.  Many  salesmen  refuse  to  look  at 
things  from  the  customer's  point  of  view,  and  so  fail  to 
entertain  his  objections  at  all.  It  takes  an  effort  to 
see  things  as  the  other  fellow  sees  them,  but  success  in 
selling  rests  on  making  the  effort  that  is  necessary  and 
patiently  trying  to  see  just  how  he  feels  about  the 
matter.  It  is  your  one  chance  to  get  him  on  your 
side.  He  may  exaggerate  some  point,  or  his  point  may 
be  well  taken  and  you  have  to  show  him  that  he  should 
weigh  the  arguments  both  for  and  against  and  decide 
on  the  side  of  the  greatest  weight.  Some  salesmen  will 
never  admit  that  an  objection  exists  at  all.  When  there 
is  a  real  objection,  it  is  far  better  to  admit  it  frankly. 
Often  the  customer  merely  wants  to  make  you  admit 
that  a  certain  objection  exists.  If  you  refuse  he  gets 
so  worked  up  about  making  you  see  the  point  that  he 
finally  decides  not  to  buy.  If  you  admit  it,  so  that  he 
gets  it  off  his  mind,  he  is  then  ready  to  consider  some 
of  your  arguments  and  yield  to  them. 

It  is  always  a  mistake  to  argue  with  a  customer  about 
anything.  You  do  not  need  to  agree  with  him  in  every- 
thing he  has  to  say.  You  can  state  your  case  sharply 
and  clearly.    But  after  you  have  done  that,  you  should 


446        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


stop.  To  keep  on  going  over  your  case  as  he  keeps  on 
going  over  his  case  is  always  a  mistake.  It  is  far  better, 
once  you  have  stated  your  point  of  view,  simply  to 
change  the  subject  or  maintain  a  dignified  silence. 

A  salesman  who  is  in  the  field  will  soon  learn  what  the 
standard  objections  are.  We  will  refer  to  a  few  which 
are  almost  universal  and  will  illustrate  how  to  handle 
others  that  are  particular  to  a  given  business. 

Objection:  ''Well,  I  will  think  it  over,  and  if  you 
are  coming  around  this  way  again  in  a  week  or  two,  I 
may  decide  to  do  something." 

Answer:  ''Mr.  Jones,  you  understand  this  subject 
better  to-day,  right  now,  than  you  will  two  or  three 
weeks  hence.  You  have  all  of  the  facts  in  mind.  To- 
morrow you  will  inevitably  have  lost  some,  perhaps  one- 
third,  and  in  two  or  three  weeks  you  will  have  naturally 
and  inevitably  forgotten  two-thirds  of  them.  That  is 
no  criticism  of  you:  it  is  merely  the  statement  of  a 
well-established  psychological  principle.  You  couldn't 
help  it  to  save  your  life.  NOW  is  the  time  you  can 
make  a  wise  decision.  If  you  have  made  up  your  mind 
you  ought  to  have  this  thing,  say  so  now  and  get  the 
thing  off  your  mind,  so  you  can  give  your  attention 
to  other  matters.  If  you  do  not  have  the  money  now, 
set  the  time  when  you  will  have  it  and  we  will  make 
delivery  then.  But  you  ought  to  decide  while  you  can 
do  so  with  greatest  intelligence  and  knowledge." 

Objection:  "I  must  consult  my  wife."  (The  same 
applies  to  any  other  person.) 

Answer:  "Your  wife  knows  nothing  whatever  about 
this  matter.  If  you  feel  that  you  must  depend  on  her 
judgment,  let  us  make  an  appointment  when  I  can  meet 
her,  and  we  will  go  over  the  matter  together.  It  is  only 
reasonable  that  if  she  is  to  decide  she  should  be  placed 
in  position  to  judge  intelligently.    At  any  time  you 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  447 

wish  to  make  the  appointment,  I  will  keep  it.''  [Never 
permit  a  person  who  knows  nothing  about  your  proposal 
to  pass  on  it.  You  may  be  very  sure  that  even  if  your 
prospective  customer  is  himself  very  enthusiastic  he  will 
present  your  case  badly.  Often  a  salesman  depends  on 
him  because  he  has  so  much  influence  with  the  person 
to  be  consulted.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that 
he  has  not  been  trained  as  a  solicitor,  nor  has  he  mastered 
your  canvass,  and  so  he  is  sure  to  present  the  case  just 
as  any  other  beginner  or  amateur  would.  You  wouldn't 
send  out  a  salesman  who  wasn 't  prepared :  don 't  send 
a  prospective  customer  to  do  your  talking  for  you,  how- 
ever much  influence  he  may  have.  Go  with  him  your- 
self, and  then  you  will  have  his  influence  coupled  with 
your  own  skill  in  presenting  the  case.] 
Objection:  ''I  can't  afford  it." 

Answer:  Show  in  detail  how  he  can't  afford  not  to, 
and  argue  the  wisdom  of  looking  forward  to  the  larger 
considerations  so  as  to  get  the  greatest  good  in  the  end 
even  if  some  temporary  sacrifices  have  to  be  made.  If 
necessary,  go  into  the  customer's  private  affairs  and  help 
him  figure  out  just  how  he  can  get  the  money. 

Here  is  the  way  a  National  Cash-Register  salesman 
handled  that  objection  on  one  occasion: 

*'You  can  not  expect  to  run  a  store  without  losing  a 
quarter  a  day  as  a  result  of  mistakes  in  change,  and 
twenty-five  cents  a  day  more  for  forgotten  charges,  can 
you?"  ^^No." 

^^That  is  an  absolute  loss.  You  believe  the  Register 
will  stop  these  losses  and  absolutely  pay  for  itself  in  a 
short  time.  If  you  lose  half  a  dollar  a  day,  and  there 
are  312  working  days  in  a  year,  you  lose  $156  a  year. 
In  ten  years  your  absolute  loss  is  $1,560  at  least,  and 
yet  what  do  I  ask  for  my  Register,  which  is  an  insur- 
ance policy  against  this  loss  of  money?    I  do  not  ask 


448        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


$460  for  ten  years  with  only  one-sixteenth  of  1  per 
cent,  chance  of  loss.  All  I  ask  is  $425.  You  have  just 
insured  your  store  for  $46.25  a  year,  $462.50  for  ten 
years.  According  to  fire  insurance  statistics  you  have 
just  one  chance  in  sixteen  hundred  of  being  burned  out. 
Think  of  it!  Only  one  chance  in  1,600!  And  yet  you 
are  not  willing  to  take  that  chance,  and  you  are  right 
not  to  take  it.  Your  loss  of  money  through  not  having 
the  register  is  dead  certain,  with  no  chance  about  it, 
and  you  can  insure  against  that  loss  for  less  money  than 
you  have  just  insured  against  the  one-in-sixteen-hundred 
chance  of  fire.  As  a  level-headed  business  man  you 
can't,  under  the  circumstances,  afford  to  turn  my  pro- 
position down." 

The  Salesman's  Personal  Check-up 

A  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link,  and  to 
make  a  good  salesman  you  must  have  all  the  elements 
right.  Before  you  start  in  you  should  check  yourself 
over  to  see  if  you  are  properly  prepared,  and  after  you 
start  you  should  use  the  check-card  shown  below  to  find 
out  at  just  what  point  you  are  weak,  so  you  may  con- 
centrate your  attention  on  that  point.  Here  is  the  sheet 
for  the  preliminary  personal  check-up : 

Are  you  healthy,  so  you  can  talk  with  life  and  energy 
and  work  steadily  ? 

Have  you  self-confidence,  and  faith  in  your  goods  as 
well  as  in  yourself  ? 

Is  your  dress  neither  showy  nor  slovenly  but  dignified  f 

Is  your  manner  pleasant  and  free  from  offense  of  any 
kind? 

Is  your  voice  distinct  and  stimulating,  yet  smooth 
and  pleasant  to  the  ear? 

Have  you  made  a  sufficient  study  of  tact  and  how 
to  handle  human  nature? 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  449 


Are  you  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  merits  of  your 
goods  ? 

Are  you  familiar  with  the  merits  and  demerits  of 
competitive  goods? 

Have  you  studied  the  special  circumstances,  char- 
acter, and  needs  of  your  customers  as  a  class  ? 

Have  you  a  selling-talk  or  plan  of  canvass  based  on 
the  best  available  experience  of  others  who  have  really 
succeeded  on  your  special  goods? 

Finally,  do  you  work  hard  enough  ? 

Now  when  you  make  your  canvass  keep  a  record  of 
each  person  approached  on  a  card  like  the  following  to 
see  at  what  point  you  are  weak,  so  that  you  can  con- 
centrate on  that  step  in  your  canvass : 


Name  of 
Customer 

Prep. 
Study  of 
Cust. 

Attention 
secured 

Cust. 
feels  his 
need 

Desire 
for  your 
Goods 

Closed 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  SELLING  HINTS— SUGGESTION 

The  word  ^'suggestion''  has  become  popular  through 
the  use  of  it  in  connection  with  hypnotism.  Every  idea 
put  into  a  man^s  mind  tends  to  produce  action  uncon- 
sciously and  immediately.  Say  ''east"  to  a  man  and 
his  body  will  unconsciously  sway  slightly  toward  the 
east — so  slightly  that  only  the  delicate  instruments  of 
the  psychological  laboratory  can  detect  the  movement. 
In  ordinary  life  there  is  a  multitude  of  competing  sug- 
gestions, and  so  we  have  come  to  depend  on  reason  to 


450        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


decide  which  we  shall  act  on.  In  the  case  of  hypnotism 
an  artificial  sleep  is  produced  which  shuts  out  all  other 
influences  except  that  of  the  operator,  and  then  the 
slightest  suggestion  produces  action,  however  absurd. 

As  a  principle  of  psychology  in  business,  suggestion 
is  an  appeal  to  the  subjective  mind  that  acts  spon- 
taneously and  immediately,  instead  of  to  the  reasoning 
mind  through  arguments.  In  advertising,  suggestions 
are  given  most  obviously  by  pictures.  Look  at  a  picture 
of  a  boy  eating  a  watermelon  which  he  seems  to  be 
enjoying,  and  at  once  your  mouth  waters  and  you  want 
to  buy  a  watermelon  so  you  can  eat  it,  too.  The  pictures 
of  the  Jap-a-lac  girl  applying  the  paint,  the  picture  of 
the  can,  and  the  peculiar  name,  all  tended,  says  "Walter 
Dill  Scott,  to  make  him  feel  that  he  had  often  seen 
Jap-a-lac  used,  so  that  when  he  went  to  a  store  to  buy 
something  of  this  sort  he  imagined  friends  had  told  him 
it  was  a  good  thing  and  he  had  seen  them  using  it,  tho 
afterward  he  came  to  the  conclusion  he  had  never  seen 
a  can  of  Jap-a-lac  except  in  the  advertisements. 

There  are  two  distinct  ways  of  making  a  sale:  by 
argument  in  which  you  try  to  convince  a  person's  reason 
that  he  ought  to  buy  the  goods  (tho  people  are  often 
convinced  that  they  ought  to  do  a  thing,  yet  fail  to  do 
it),  and  by  suggestion  in  which,  for  example,  a  woman 
sees  herself  wearing  a  coat,  or  a  man  sees  the  smooth 
work  of  a  fountain  pen  in  the  hands  of  the  salesman, 
or  the  verbal  suggestion  is  given  that  the  man's  wife 
would  doubtless  be  pleased  at  the  appearance  of  a  given 
hat. 

Put  a  person  in  the  way  of  seeing  and  doing  and 
thinking  about  the  little  details  and  he  falls  into  a  mental 
current  that  carries  him  along  almost  unconsciously. 
Making  a  person  feel  like  doing  a  certain  thing  is  far 
more  effective  than  making  him  think  he  ought  to  do  it. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  451 


Selling  to  women  is  very  largely  by  suggestion,  and  all 
persons  are  far  more  influenced  by  suggestion  than  they 
imagine  for  a  moment. 

Suggestion  acts  through  inducing  thought-currents 
along  the  habit-lines  inside  the  brain.  At  a  mere  touch 
the  things  before  known  and  seen  produce  pictures  which 
lead  to  new  combinations  suited  to  present  conditions. 
Another  way  to  put  it  is  to  say  that  the  imagination  is 
touched.  Let  us  read  again  the  section  on  Human 
Nature — How  to  Handle  It/'  where  the  whole  subject 
is  illustrated  in  detail. 

The  Danger  of  Negative  Suggestion 

It  is  almost  a  national  habit  for  salesmen  to  get  at  a 
thing  from  the  negative  side.  ^^You  don't  want  to  buy 
a  hat  to-day,  do  you?"  Answer  ^'No,"  precisely  what 
was  suggested.  *'I  thought  you  didn't,"  says  the  sales- 
man. To  break  this  habit  of  negative  suggestion,  for  it 
is  little  more  than  a  bad  habit,  is  one  of  the  first  duties 
of  the  student  of  scientific  selling. 

*'You  had  better  take  four  collars,  so  as  to  have  some 
on  hand  the  next  time,"  says  the  salesman,  making 
positive  suggestions.  ^  ^  Here  is  a  $4  pair  of  shoes  beside 
this  $3  pair.  They  probably  will  wear  enough  longer 
to  make  up  the  difference  in  cost  twice  over."  ^'A  gray 
overcoat  would  just  make  that  new  gray  suit  of  yours 
complete.  Let  me  hold  the  goods  up  beside  the  suit. 
Wouldn't  that  look  nobby?" 

Most  customers  do  not  think  for  themselves,  and 
salesmen  ought  to  help  them  do  their  thinking.  The 
natural  thing  is  indifference  and  failure  to  act.  When 
people  do  not  know  what  else  to  do,  they  do  nothing. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  salesman  to  put  a  multitude  of 
little  positive  suggestions  into  their  minds  which  will 
tend  to  produce  action,  and  if  these  suggestions,  with 


452        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


their  slight  stimulus  to  action,  follow  each  other  in 
the  right  order  and  with  the  stimulating  presence  of  a 
positive  salesman  behind  every  one,  the  result  will  in- 
evitably be  good  business.  The  customer  will  really  be 
served  and  he  will  be  grateful.  He  will  come  back  to 
the  salesman  who  could  help  him  think. 

Avoid  Excessive  Familiarity 

People  shrink  from  too  close  contact  with  other  human 
beings,  perhaps  repelled  by  the  personal  odor  each 
carries  about  with  him ;  or  else  a  sense  of  privacy  makes 
us  feel  that  a  too  familiar  slap  on  the  back,  taking  hold 
of  the  coat  or  arm,  or  standing  too  close  to  the  face  are 
repellent.  Never  shake  your  finger  in  a  man's  face. 
Never  touch  him  until  you  have  come  on  to  ground  of 
comradeship  with  him.  It  is  even  better  not  to  shake 
hands  on  meeting  a  man ;  but  if  the  interview  has  been 
of  the  right  sort  you  ought  to  be  able  to  shake  hands 
when  you  leave  him  and  make  it  significant  of  the  spirit 
of  helpfulness  which  you  have  been  trying  to  develop 
in  your  sales-talk. 

In  short,  don't  overdo  anything.  Cultivate  an  alert 
reserve — not  the  reserve  of  indifference  but  the  positive 
reserve  of  self-restraint  out  of  a  sensitive  consideration 
for  the  other  fellow.  In  other  words,  cultivate  respect 
for  yourself  and  respect  for  him.  Timidity  and  reti- 
cence or  natural  diffidence  are  to  be  overcome,  but  at 
the  same  time  avoid  the  other  extreme  of  unintelligent 
aggressiveness  and  offensive  familiarity.  In  all  things 
cultivate  the  golden  mean. 

Questions  on  the  Practical  Process  of  Selling 

1.  Describe  the  practical  process  of  retail  selling. 

2.  Describe  the  practical  process  of  selling  to  dealers. 

3.  "What  argument  appeals  chiefly  to  dealers? 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  453 


4.  What  is  the  secret  of  holding  dealers  once  you 
get  them? 

5.  When  you  find  a  dealer  is  stocked,  how  do  you 
lay  the  foundation  for  getting  his  next  order? 

6.  Why  is  it  important  to  get  the  good-will  of  the 
retail  clerks? 

7.  How  should  a  salesman  handle  a  large  line  of 
goods  ? 

8.  Why  is  the  perfected  art  of  salesmanship  found 
in  handling  specialties? 

9.  What  are  the  first  steps  in  making  a  sale?  How 
is  undivided  attention  to  be  secured? 

10.  How  is  sympathetic  harmony  with  the  prospect 
established  ? 

11.  What  is  the  first  great  element  in  presenting  the 
merits  of  your  goods? 

12.  In  what  way  can  reference  to  those  who  have 
already  bought  be  used  to  best  advantage?  How  im- 
portant is  it  that  a  man  know  what  others  think  of  your 
goods  ? 

13.  What  is  the  purpose  and  character  of  the  primary 
selling-talk  ? 

14.  What  is  the  purpose  and  method  of  the  secondary 
selling-talk?  How  does  the  secondary  selling-talk  com- 
pare in  length  with  the  primary  ? 

15.  What  is  the  purpose  and  character  of  the  tertiary 
selling-talk  ? 

16.  Why  is  it  a  mistake  to  argue  with  a  customer  ? 

17.  How  will  you  answer  the  man  who  says  he  will 
think  it  over? 

18.  How  will  you  answer  the  man  who  says  he  will 
consult  his  wife? 

19.  How  will  you  answer  the  man  who  says  he  can't 
afford  it?  How  does  the  National  Cash-Register  answer 
that  objection? 


454        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


20.  How  do  you  find  just  where  your  weak  points 
are  so  you  can  remove  them?  Describe  the  personal 
check-up  in  detail. 

21.  What  is  suggestion  and  how  does  it  work? 

22.  "What  are  the  dangers  of  negative  suggestion? 

23.  Why  is  it  desirable  to  avoid  excessive  familiarity  ? 

MODEL  SELLING-TALK  FOR  HOUSE-TO-HOUSE 
CANVASS 

The  following  model  selling-talk  on  the  Matchless  Gas- 
Lighter  was  prepared  by  J.  0.  Ball,  sales-manager  of 
the  Steel  Stamping  Co. 

Says  he,  ^^The  agent  can  make  such  changes  as  he 
feels  necessary,  but,  from  my  experience,  I  earnestly  rec- 
ommend that  before  he  proceeds  to  sell  the  Matchless 
Gas-Lighter  he  should  carefully  memorize  this  selling- 
talk.'' 

First,  find  out  from  the  preceding  house  that  you 
visit  who  lives  next  door.  Then,  with  a  lighter  in  your 
hand,  approach  the  house,  and  after  knocking  or  ring- 
ing the  bell,  when  some  one  comes  to  the  door,  inquire, 

''Is  Mrs.  Jones  in?" 

If  Mrs.  Jones  herself  comes  to  the  door  and  replies 
that  she  is  Mrs.  Jones,  you  can  proceed  with  the  regular 
selling-talk.  If  Mrs.  Jones  does  not  come  to  the  door, 
but  a  child  comes  to  the  door,  it  is  usually  best  to  say, 

''I  should  like  very  much  to  speak  to  Mrs.  Jones  if 
she  is  not  busy." 

But  if  a  woman  or  man  comes  to  the  door  who  you 
think  would  be  a  good  prospective  buyer,  it  is  just  as 
well  to  respond, 

''It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  call  Mrs.  Jones,  as 
you  will  do  quite  as  well." 

Then  you  can  proceed  with  the  regular  talk  as  follows : 

"I  am  demonstrating  the  Matchless  Gas-Lighter." 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  455 


As  soon  as  you  make  this  statement,  start  to  snapping 
the  lighter  and  demonstrating  it  to  the  customer.  Do 
not  have  the  lighter  in  a  box  and  stop  to  take  it  out,  as 
this  delays  the  sale  and  gives  the  prospective  customer 
time  to  think  of  objections,  and  you  do  not  attract 
attention  to  your  article  quickly  enough.  But  if  you 
have  the  lighter  handy  and  begin  snapping  it  imme- 
diately, she  naturally  watches  the  spark,  and  you  have 
covered  successfully  the  first  point  in  the  sale,  attracting 
attention.  If  you  continue  to  snap  the  lighter,  the  cus- 
tomer will  see  exactly  how  it  is  done  and  how  simple  it 
is.  Besides,  you  will  find  that  many  women  will  be  just 
a  little  startled  the  first  time  or  two  the  lighter  is  snapt 
and  will  jump  slightly.  If  you  continue  to  snap  it 
rapidly  twenty  or  thirty  times  while  you  are  talking, 
they  will  soon  get  used  to  it.  As  soon  as  you  have 
made  the  statement  that  you  are  demonstrating  the 
Matchless  Gas-Lighter,  proceed  with  your  selling-talk 
as  follows : 

*^The  Matchless  Gas-Lighter  will  save  your  time.  It 
is  instantaneous,  and  you  do  not  have  to  strike  matches 
on  the  wall,  stove,  or  woodwork.  Neither  do  you  need 
to  have  any  unsightly  sandpaper  around. 

^^It  is  cleaner  than  matches,  and  does  away  with  all 
dirty  burnt  matches  around  the  stove.  No  doubt  you 
oftentimes  wished  that  you  could  eliminate  all  dirty 
matches  around  the  stove,  and  the  Matchless  Gas-Lighter 
does  that  for  you. 

*^You  will  also  find  that  the  Matchless  Gas-Lighter  is 
much  more  convenient  than  matches.  You  can  pick  up 
the  lighter  and  light  the  gas  quicker  and  more  easily 
than  you  could  pick  up  a  match  and  strike  it  and  then 
light  the  gas. 

^^The  Matchless  Gas-Lighter  is  much  safer  than 
matches.    Fires  are  often  caused  by  matches  when  they 


456       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


become  overheated  on  a  gas-stove.  You  have  no  doubt 
had  this  happen,  where  the  whole  box  would  ignite,  and 
sometimes  women  are  very  severely  burned  when  a  whole 
box  of  matches  catches  fire.  Mice  often  chew  matches 
and  start  fires.  Pieces  of  matches  often  fly  off  and  burn 
the  hands  or  face.  You  will  not  have  any  of  these 
dangers  with  the  Matchless  Gas-Lighter." 

At  this  point  in  the  sale  it  is  well  to  hold  the  Match- 
less Gas-Lighter  close  to  the  hand  and  spark  it  several 
times  to  show  that  it  will  not  burn. 

After  covering  these  four  steps  in  your  selling-talk, 
you  should  create  a  desire  for  possession  in  the  mind 
of  the  customer.  You  are  now  ready  to  create  a  decision 
to  buy.  A  decision  to  buy  is  a  mental  process,  and  to 
arrive  at  a  decision  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  price 
and  to  weigh  the  desirability  of  the  article  against  the 
price  in  order  to  decide  to  buy.  Therefore  at  this  step 
of  the  sale  it  is  time  to  introduce  the  selling  price  of 
the  gas-lighter. 

It  is  done  by  first  showing  the  saving  of  the  gas- 
lighter  and  how  much  cheaper  it  is  to  use  the  gas-lighter 
than  to  use  matches.  After  making  the  statement  about 
eliminating  the  dangers  of  matches  through  using  the 
lighter,  you  can  then  proceed  as  follows : 

'^You  can  save  money  by  using  the  Matchless  Gas- 
Lighter,  as  it  is  cheaper  than  matches.  One  spark  point 
will  supply  over  3,000  lights.  Then  a  new  spark  point 
can  be  put  in,  as  the  lighter  will  last  indefinitely.  New 
spark  points  are  sold  3  for  10  cents.  This  makes 
over  12,000  lights  for  60  cents,  including  the  price  of 
the  lighter,  which  is  50  cents.  In  the  ordinary  box  of 
matches  for  5  cents  there  are  supposed  to  be  500  matches. 
They  usually  run  about  450.  At  this  rate,  then,  you 
will  pay  $1.30  for  12,000  matches.  The  spark  points  for 
the  lighter,  therefore,  cost  less  than  one-tenth  as  much  as 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  457 


matches.  If  you  buy  the  lighter  for  50  cents  and  three 
extra  points  for  10  cents,  you  will  have  a  total  investment 
of  60  cents  and  will  get  12,000  lights,  and  12,000  matches 
cost  $1.30.  You  will,  therefore,  save  70  cents  and  have 
the  lighter  besides.  You  can  secure  extra  spark  points 
3  for  10  cents  by  writing  the  manufacturers,  and  the 
spark  points  will  cost  just  one-tenth  as  much  as  you 
formerly  paid  for  matches." 

At  this  point  you  should  get  a  decision  to  buy,  but 
many  people  decide  to  buy  something  and  do  not  resolve 
to  buy  it  right  away.  In  order  to  get  a  resolution  to 
buy  at  this  time  and  get  the  money,  it  is  often  necessary 
to  review  briefly  the  various  selling  points  of  the  lighter 
and  then  to  suggest  buying  now.  The  following  con- 
clusion to  the  model  selling-talk  is,  therefore,  suggested 
to  get  a  resolution  to  buy  at  this  time : 

*^The  Matchless  Gas-Lighter  will,  therefore,  save  you 
money,  and  besides  it  will  (1)  save  your  time;  (2)  will 
make  your  kitchen  and  gas-stove  cleaner  through  not 
having  a  lot  of  burnt  matches  around;  (3)  it  will  be 
more  convenient  than  matches;  and  (4)  it  will  be  very 
much  safer  and  eliminate  all  danger  of  burning  yourself 
as  well  as  the  danger  of  fire  from  matches.  I  have  sold 
several  in  this  neighborhood  to-day,  and  do  not  expect 
to  be  around  this  way  again,  so  if  you  desire  the  lighter 
I  will  leave  one  with  you." 

At  this  point  you  should  offer  the  lighter  to  the  cus- 
tomer. If  you  do  not  succeed  in  making  the  sale,  many 
of  our  agents  offer  as  a  little  inducement  one  envelop 
containing  three  extra  spark  points  with  the  lighter  for 
50  cents.  Some  of  our  most  successful  agents  make  this 
offer,  and  it  often  makes  the  sale. 

If  you  get  along  as  far  with  the  selling-talk  as  out- 
lined, and  you  offer  the  light  to  the  customer  at  the  con- 
clusion, I  believe  that  you  will  find,  in  the  majority  of 


458       HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


cases,  the  customer  will  give  you  the  money  and  you 
will  be  enabled  to  effect  the  sale  immediately. 

If  for  any  reason  the  customer  has  not  the  money  at 
the  time  and  requests  you  to  call  later,  the  chances  are 
that  she  has  decided  to  buy  the  lighter,  and  it  is  usually 
advisable  to  make  an  arrangement  at  a  mutually  con- 
venient time  later  on  in  the  day,  or  perhaps  the  follow- 
ing day,  to  call  and  deliver  the  lighter  and  collect  the 
money. 

Questions 

1.  What  preparation  for  this  sale  is  made  ? 

2.  How  is  attention  attracted? 

3.  What  general  arguments  are  used  to  induce  a 
desire  for  something  better  than  matches? 

4.  What  special  arguments  are  used  to  develop  in- 
terest in  the  Matchless  Gas-Lighter? 

5.  How  is  the  sale  closed? 

If  possible,  procure  a  Matchless  Gas-Lighter  by 
writing  to  the  Steel  Stamping  Company,  143  West 
Austin  Avenue,  Chicago,  and  after  memorizing  this  talk, 
give  it  before  the  class. 

Special  Assignment 

Take  some  article  with  which  you  are  familiar  or 
about  which  you  can  learn  fully,  and  prepare  a  selling- 
talk  complete  in  all  its  parts,  yet  sufficiently  brief. 

Carefully  figure  how  much  time  an  agent  can  afford 
to  give  to  making  a  sale,  yet  earn  enough  money  to  pay. 
First,  consider  the  value  of  his  time  apart  from  this 
special  work,  and  then  see  how  fast  he  must  work  during 
the  day  to  earn  that  money. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  459 


COMPLETE  CANVASS  TO  SELL  THIS  BOOK* 

Canvass  for  the  Business  Manager — Preparation 

First,  be  sure  he  is  paying  attention  to  you.  If 
several  persons  are  standing  around,  waiting  to  see  him, 
gracefully  step  aside  till  they  can  be  attended  to.  If 
the  man's  mind  seems  engrossed  with  letters  he  is  read- 
ing, or  a  telegram  he  has  just  received,  or  something 
that  appears  to  worry  him,  don't  spoil  your  chance  by 
going  blindly  ahead.  Quietly  and  patiently  wait  until 
you  can  have  his  full  attention.  If  he  tells  you  to  go 
ahead  with  what  you  have  to  say,  excuse  yourself  and 
say  you  prefer  to  wait.  If  necessary,  insist  on  calling 
another  day. 

All  that  is  usually  necessary  to  secure  attention  is 
simply  to  wait  patiently  until  you  have  it.  When  you 
can  command  yourself  by  self-restraint,  you  put  your- 
self in  command  of  the  situation  and  of  your  prospect. 

When,  at  last,  you  have  his  undivided  attention,  what 
shall  you  say  first  ? 

Certainly  nothing  about  the  book.  His  thought  is  on 
how  to  make  more  money.  Start  just  where  his  thought 
already  is — on  how  he  can  make  more  money. 

''If  all  your  correspondents,  department  managers, 
stenographers,  and  clerks  could  learn  to  write  correct 
and  effective  letters,  wouldn't  they  be  worth  at  least 
25  per  cent,  more  to  you  ? ' ' 

Perhaps  at  this  point  the  business  man  will  express 
himself  quite  vigorously  about  the  letters,  etc.,  which 
his  clerks  write,  and  perhaps  he  will  say  nothing  at  all. 
If  he  talks,  let  him  talk  until  he  has  finished,  but  don't 
be  led  astray  by  him.    Stick  to  your  line. 

''The  new,  scientific  methods  of  putting  'pull'  into 


*  The  testimonials  in  this  canvass  are  all  genuine  and  the  names  real. 


460        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


letters,  circulars,  and  advertisements  have  actually  been 
taught,  in  a  large  number  of  cases,  so  that  the  returns 
on  letters  were  increased  10,  50,  even  150  per  cent,  or 
more.  I  should  like  to  show  you  copies  of  a  few  personal 
letters  containing  simple  records  of  FACTS,  that  you 
may  see  what  others  have  done." 

The  following  genuine  letters  should  be  carefully 
copied  off,  each  letter  on  a  separate  sheet  of  fine,  white 
bond  paper.  At  the  top  place  the  word  '^COPY."  As 
each  letter  is  handed  out,  the  solicitor  should  rapidly 
tell  what  happened  in  that  instance,  as,  **Mr.  Estep, 
the  writer  of  this  series  of  three  letters,  was  a  young 
man  in  the  position  of  assistant  manager,  writing  beauti- 
fully correct  letters,  all  very  neat  and  impressive;  but 
putting  PULL  into  them  increased  the  business  they  got 
nearly  50  per  cent. — ^half  as  much  again  actual  cash 
business  with  the  same  identical  expenditure  on  postage, 
clerk-hire,  and  brain-effort  on  the  part  of  the  writer. 
That  50  per  cent,  was  clear  profit — net  gain.'' 

Develop  a  similar  talk  on  each  of  the  other  letters  and 
give  the  talk  as  you  hand  out  the  letters.  Watch  to  see 
that  your  talk  does  not  take  more  time  than  is  required 
to  read  the  letter. 

These  personal  letters  were  written  to  Mr.  Cody  con- 
cerning his  correspondence  course  and  private  instruc- 
tion cards  for  business  men,  now  incorporated  in  this 
book. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  461 


50  Per  Cent.  More  Business  From  Inquiries 
From  Assistant  Manager  R,  D.  Nuttall  Co.,  Pittsburgh, 
Associate  Firm  of  W estinghouse  Combination, 
Largest  and  Oldest  Manufacturers  of 
Machinery-Gears  in  the 
Country 

Mr.  Sherwin  Cody, 
Chicago,  111. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  enclosing  a  second  lot  of  letters  for 
your  inspection  and  criticism,  and  I  also  send  you  again 
the  first  bunch  I  submitted,  in  case  you  desire  to  make 
a  comparison. 

I  have  succeeded  in  having  our  quotation  form 
changed  and  have  added  the  guaranty  on  the  back  as 
a  talking-point"  in  my  letters.  Results  are  what 
show  improvement.  During  the  sixty  days  prior  to  be- 
ginning your  course  I  received  exactly  25  per  cent,  of 
orders  where  I  made  quotations  and  in  the  next  sixty 
days  the  percentage  had  advanced  to  36.  Out  of  487 
quotations,  176  orders  resulted.  This  is  considered  a 
very  good  average  in  this  business,  and  there  is  no 
question  that  the  improvement  has  been  brought  about 
by  adopting  your  ideas  gained  from  the  card  lessons. 
You  may  put  me  down  as  being  very  well  satisfied. 

L.  H.  ESTEP, 
Assistant  Manager. 

Five  Months  Later — 75  Per  Cent,  of  Replies  to  a 
Circular  Letter 

Dear  Sir:  You  may  be  interested  in  having  a  copy 
of  a  circular  letter  which  is  bringing  75  per  cent,  of 
replies. 

More  than  half  of  these  replies  have  been  most  en- 
couraging, and  such  are  followed  up  by  specially  dic- 
tated letters,  suiting  each  case,  which  have  brought  us 
information  we  need  in  order  to  make  a  proposition. 


462        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


We  have  already,  as  a  result  of  less  than  300  original 
circulars,  booked  some  actual  orders,  and  are  in  com- 
munication with  a  surprizing  number  of  mills  with 
which  it  is  fair  to  assume  we  will  do  business,  and  which 
we  will  add  to  our  list  of  permanent  customers. 

L.  H.  ESTEP. 

Two  Years  Later — ^Mr.  Cody^s  Searching  Questions 

' '  Questions  you  have  put  up  to  me  have  required  study 
and  investigation  which  have  revealed  unfavorable  con- 
ditions accounting  for  some  of  our  troubles — ^have  lo- 
cated them  and  put  us  in  position  to  remedy  them. 

*  ^  If  a  man  doesn 't  at  least  know  all  the  details  of  his 
own  business  before  he  goes  very  far  with  you,  he  isn't 
getting  all  the  value  he  can  for  his  money,  for,  as  I  said 
once  before,  you  can  ask  questions  about  a  business  I 
have  been  in  for  nine  years  that  I  can't  answer,  and 
you  have  started  investigations  here  in  many  lines  that 
even  you  probably  never  contemplated." 

L.  H.  ESTEP. 

Rewording  Letters  Brings  Over  $4,698  Additional 
Business 

329  Arsenal  Ave.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Mr.  Sherwin  Cody, 

1411  Security  Bldg.,  Chicago,  111. 
Dear  Sir:  "We've  made  a  catch.  I  dug  up  some  old 
records  the  other  day  and  was  really  surprized  at  the 
comparison.  During  the  past  two  years  we  have  cir- 
cularized all  the  third-class  post-offices  for  our  Auto- 
matic Keyless  Box.  We  have  used  the  same  letter  and 
circular  to  fetch  the  inquiries.  Up  to  last  fall  we 
usually  got  from  90  to  120  inquiries  from  our  4,000 
circulars.  But  the  last  two  mailings  have  brought  only 
71  and  46  inquiries. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  463 


Now,  last  year  out  of  my  90  to  120  inquiries  I  could 
get  only  $2,000  to  $3,000  worth  of  business,  and  from 
25  to  35  orders. 

With  your  help,  I  got  43  orders  out  of  71  inquiries 
and  $4,852  worth  of  business,  and  out  of  the  46  inquiries 
I  got  28  orders  amounting  to  $2,846. 

I  want  to  dig  down  into  that  lock-box  matter  again, 
and  I  believe  we  can  make  it  even  more  effective. 

Yours  very  cordially, 
H.  GARD, 

Adv.  Mgr.  Combination  of  Five  Companies. 

Note. — In  this  case  conditions  were  the  same  as  they 
had  been  for  some  years  past,  or  more  unfavorable,  as 
the  hard  times  had  cut  down  the  inquiries  to  about  half. 
Yet  a  total  of  117  inquiries  were  made  to  yield  $7,698, 
as  against  not  to  exceed  $3,000  from  120  inquiries. 
THE  REWORDING  OF  A  FEW  LETTERS  MEANT 
$4,698  worth  of  business  in  excess  of  what  had  ever 
before  been  received. 

Jap  Gets  229  $15  Orders  Out  of  350  Circular 
Letters 

Yamato  Co.,  New  York. 
Dear  Mr.  Cody:  I  sent  out  the  enclosed  letter  to  350 
names  selected  from  our  best  customers,  enclosing  a 
stamped  post-card.  Out  of  this  350  I  received  267  post- 
cards. Of  these  267  people  only  38  returned  the  goods. 
The  offer  covered  a  stock  of  table-covers  we  could  not 
move,  and  for  which  we  asked  $15.  This  is  the  best 
return  I  have  got  in  these  past  ten  months. 

Yours  truly, 

MOCK  JOYA. 
Note. — This  little  Jap  knew  little  or  nothing  of  adver- 
tising or  even  of  American  business  methods  when  he 


464        HUMAN  NATUEE  IN  BUSINESS 


began  to  study  with  Mr.  Cody.  His  conservative  uncle 
would  not  even  print  a  small  circular.  The  letter  fol- 
lowed a  suggestion  of  Mr.  Cody's  that  the  best  way  to 
sell  Japanese  goods  was  to  tell  a  fairy  story  in  regard  to 
the  manufacture,  or  in  explanation  of  the  designs.  It 
was  a  well-devised  story  of  this  kind  that  brought  this 
record  return — about  $10  for  every  circular  letter 
mailed. 

From  Former  Advertising  Manager  of  One  of  the 
Largest  Department  Stores  in  the  World — 
Name  on  Eequest 
Mr.  M.  L.  Heminway, 

Sales  Manager,  Charles  A.  Eaton  Co., 
Brockton,  Mass. 
Dear  Sir:  I  am  glad  to  endorse  again  Sherwin  Cody's 
System  of  Letter- Writing.  You  ask  in  what  ways  the 
course  is  beneficial.  It  is  as  if  a  father  took  his  son 
aside  and  put  him  next  to  the  game.  Cody  is  a  practical 
business  man,  and  has  dealt  so  long  with  practical  men 
that  his  writings  get  right  down  to  brass  tacks.  If  you 
were  going  to  start  a  new  salesman  in  your  business, 
you  could  take  him  aside  and  tell  him  in  an  informal  way 
lots  of  things  you  probably  wouldn't  write  out.  You 
tell  him  how  to  go  easy  with  the  old  man  there,  and  how 
to  keep  from  stepping  on  the  toes  of  this  other  man. 
You  tell  him  some  of  the  mistakes  that  have  been  made 
and  what  you  learned  by  them.  In  short,  you  give  him 
standpoint.  Now,  this  is  what  Cody  does  more  than  any 
other  writer  I  ever  read — ^he  gives  you  standpoint. 
Altho  I  pass  for  a  capable  letter-writer,  I  take  my  hat  off 
to  Cody.  Yours  truly, 


Adv.  Manager. 
Note. — In  reply  to  a  letter  asking  the  question,  '^To 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  465 


what  extent  have  you  found  Sherwin  Cody's  course 
beneficial,  and  in  what  way  1 ' '  Employees  of  above  firm 
have  bought  hundreds  of  Mr.  Cody's  books  and  courses. 

The  Chicago  Association  of  Commerce 

Mr.  Sherwin  Cody, 

1411  Security  Building, 
Chicago,  111. 

Dear  Mr.  Cody :  I  am  quite  familiar  with  your  works, 
and  honestly  I  do  not  believe  there  are  any  other  pub- 
lications in  the  field  that  can  begin  to  compare  with 
yours  along  the  line  of  plain,  simple  English  compo- 
sition— how  to  make  people  talk  in  a  straightforward 
way  on  paper. 

There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  but  that  the  average 

jsiness  letter  is  of  a  very  low  standard,  and  certainly 
you  deserve  much  credit  for  the  masterly  manner  in 
which  you  have  gone  about  teaching  higher  education — 
particularly  in  business  correspondence. 

I  shall  be  very  glad  to  aid  you  in  any  way  and  at  any 
time  that  I  may  be  of  service.    Sincerely  yours, 

WALTER  D.  MOODY, 
(At  the  time  of  writing)  General  Manager. 

Primary  Selling-Talk  for  the  Business  Manager 

Book  agents  who  are  skilful  make  it  a  point  never  to 
carry  a  book  in  their  hands.  Either  they  have  a  servant 
following  in  the  rear  to  carry  the  book,  or  the  book  is 
concealed  in  a  large  inside  pocket.  It  is  much  more 
effective  to  come  in  and  sit  down  with  nothing  but  your 
hat  in  your  hand,  or  some  ordinary  thing  like  that. 
Coming  with  nothing  in  your  hands  helps  to  get  atten- 
tion in  the  first  place,  and  sitting  with  nothing  in  your 
hands  helps  to  pique  curiosity.  Traveling  salesmen 
calling  on  a  new  prospect  who  does  not  know  them. 


466        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


leave  the  sample  case  on  the  floor  outside  the  door,  or 
in  a  corner. 

In  case  of  the  canvass  on  the  book  ^^How  to  Deal 
with  Human  Nature  in  Business, "  it  is  important  to  keep 
everything  out  of  sight  till  needed.  You  draw  the 
letters  from  a  stout  manila  envelop  (if  possible  one  of 
dark  color  that  will  not  soon  look  soiled),  which  you 
take  from  an  inside  pocket  or  handbag.  Not  until  the 
letters  are  all  read  do  you  produce  the  book  itself  from  a 
handbag  or  a  special  inside  pocket,  taking  it  out  without 
attracting  attention,  while  the  eyes  of  the  man  are  on 
the  last  letter. 

You  are  now  ready  to  give  your  primary  canvass  on 
the  book. 

'^In  that  book,  Mr.  Smith,  has  been  reprinted  Mr. 
Cody's  correspondence  course  on  'How  to  Deal  with 
Human  Nature  in  Business,'  which,  sold  at  $10  to  $90, 
drew  forth  the  letters  which  you  have  just  read." 

Don't  hand  the  book  to  the  business  man,  tho  he  will 
probably  at  once  reach  for  it,  and  it  will  require  some 
aplomb  on  your  part  to  refrain  from  letting  him  take 
it  into  his  hands,  and  begin  turning  the  pages  over  at 
random.  If  he  begins  to  do  that,  however,  you  have 
lost  control  of  the  situation  and  will  find  that  you  are 
all  at  sea,  not  knowing  what  his  mind  is  fixt  on — whether 
on  what  you  are  saying,  or  on  something  entirely  differ- 
ent, which  he  happens  to  have  found  in  the  book.  The 
way  to  do  when  he  reaches  for  the  book  is  to  rise  grace- 
fully, as  if  you  didn't  see  him,  and  place  your  chair 
beside  his,  so  you  can  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  book 
and  show  him  the  good  things,  which  you  find  quickly 
through  having  committed  the  pages  to  memory. 

While  you  are  rising  and  taking  your  new  position 
beside  the  man,  you  say: 

''Mr.  Cody's  method  is  nothing  but  common  sense 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  467 


applied  to  dealing  with  human  nature  in  business,  and 
using  the  English  language  in  a  direct  and  forceful 
style/' 

Turn  to  page  75. 

''For  instance,  Mr.  Cody  starts  out  by  saying,  'Don't 
begin  all  your  letters  in  the  same  well-worn,  stereotyped 
fashion,'  with  'esteemed  favor,'  and  'honor  to  inform,' 
and  all  that.  You  wouldn't  talk  like  that.  Don't  write 
like  that. 

"You  know  perfectly  well  how  stiff  all  that  jargon 
makes  business  letters,  and  if  you  could  clean  out  of 
your  correspondence  every  stereotyped  phrase  you 
would  simply  DELIGHT  your  customers  by  your 
natural  and  straightforward  simplicity. 

"You  see,  the  author  of  this  book  gives  letter  after 
letter,  written  in  the  easy,  conversational  style  he  ad- 
vocates. 

"Here,  on  page  82,  you  see  his  attitude  toward 
colloquialisms  and  slang.  Homely  conversational  ex- 
pressions, you  know,  are  the  very  life  of  business  letters, 
tho  slang  touched  with  vulgarity  is  always  offensive. 
You  never  saw  a  book  on  correspondence  before  which 
drew  the  line  so  naturally,  so  sensibly,  so  'common- 
sensibly,'  if  I  may  use  the  expression. 

"But  Mr.  Cody  gets  right  down  to  brass  tacks  and 
shows  you  what  is  bad  and  what  is  good.  For  example, 
here,  on  page  91,  you  find  a  poor  answer  to  an  inquiry, 
and  just  below  there  are  notes  telling  what's  the  matter 
at  every  point.  Then  you  have  the  right  answer  properly 
written,  with  reasons  why  following. 

' '  On  page  104  Mr.  Cody  gives  his  System  for  Handling 
Correspondence — tells  how  you  can  write  one  hundred 
masterly  letters  a  day  instead  of  three  or  four  master- 
pieces and  ninety-seven  commonplace  letters.  By  this 
system  Mr.  Cody  says  his  stenographer  has  answered 


468        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


three-fourths  of  all  his  correspondence,  entirely  in  his 
language,  and  in  his  VERY  BEST  LANGUAGE,  that 
has  been  carefully  corrected  and  revised  many  times. 
He  says  she  can  beat  him  as  a  correspondent,  ten  to  one, 
by  using  this  system." 
Turn  over  to  page  127. 

'^But  the  great  thing  in  getting  business  is  knowing 
how  to  deal  with  human  nature. 

''Do  your  letters  all  seem  to  run  about  the  same 
length?  The  first  step  toward  skilful  handling  of  cor- 
respondence is  writing  a  long  letter  when  a  long  letter 
is  needed,  and  a  short  letter  when  a  short  letter  is  needed. 

''Here,  you  see,  is  a  section  on  'How  to  Write  a 
Letter  That  Will  Get  Attention'  (page  128),  'How  to 
Write  a  Letter  That  Will  Develop  Interest'  (page  132), 
'How  to  Write  a  Letter  That  Will  Compel  an  Answer,' 
and  then  a  series  on  handling  different  kinds  of  cus- 
tomers (page  140),  'The  Reasonable  Customer'  (page 
140),  'The  Irritable  Customer'  (page  144),  'How  to  Do 
Business  With  a  Woman'  (page  147),  'How  to  Write  to 
a  Lady  on  a  Delicate  Matter,'  and  so  on.  (Don't  show 
any  more  titles,  for  they  will  probably  produce  a  lessen- 
ing interest — an  anti-climax.) 

"A  sales  letter  ought  to  be  constructed  on  a  regular 
system  if  it  is  to  get  business.  Here  (on  page  193)  you 
will  find  the  system  in  a  nutshell  which  enabled  Nuttall, 
and  the  post-office  fixture  man,  and  the  little  Jap  to 
get  business — here  you  see  the  points,  'creating  desire,' 
'showing  how  your  plan  works,'  etc.  And  here  at  the 
bottom  of  page  194  is  Mr.  Cody's  first  successful  pulling 
letter.  This  letter  that  wasn't  successful  probably  looks 
pretty  good  to  you,  but  it  is  this  letter  down  here  that 
did  the  business. 

"And  here  you  have  letter  after  letter  that  actually 
pulled  the  business — there  is  nothing  like  showing  a 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  469 


man  just  how  somebody  else  did  it — really  did  it  in 
real  life,  not  in  theory. ' ' 

(Turn  pages  rapidly  and  call  attention  to  numerous 
letters.) 

Very  likely  your  business  man  will  say,  ^'111  take 
that  book.    How  much  is  it?'' 

You  promptly  reply,  ^*Mr.  Smith,  I'm  not  trying  to 
sell  you  that  book.    I'd  be  glad  to  give  it  to  you. 

^'What  I  want  is  an  introduction  to  your  correspon- 
dents and  stenographers,  every  one  of  whom  ought  to 
have  a  copy  of  this  book." 

Of  course,  you  expect  to  sell  him  a  copy,  but  you  will 
not  lose  your  sale  by  talking  about  giving  it  to  him, 
and  in  that  way  you  avoid  being  dismissed  with  the 
simple  sale  of  one  book  to  be  passed  around  the  office, 
out  of  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  employees  would  get 
little  or  nothing. 

Practise  on  giving  this  talk  in  your  own  words,  but 
following  closely  in  the  book  the  pages  indicated,  till 
you  can  get  it  olf  with  smoothness  and  self-command — 
in  short,  until  you  feel  somebody  actually  yielding  to 
your  persuasion. 

Secondary  Selling-Talk  for  the  Business-Manager 

A  man  who  would  listen  to  the  primary  talk  to  the 
end,  if  he  were  a  business  man  who  had  replied  favor- 
ably to  a  letter  on  the  subject  of  this  book,  would  be 
pretty  sure  to  give  one  order  for  one  copy  of  the  book. 

The  profit  on  the  sale  of  one  copy,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, would  not  be  sufficient,  however,  and  getting 
an  opportunity  to  sell  a  number  of  copies  to  different 
employees  of  the  office  might  be  a  more  difficult  matter, 
even  after  success  up  to  this  point  has  resulted. 

At  the  same  time,  the  solicitor  might  not  be  given  a 


470        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


chance  to  complete  his  sales-talk  as  outlined  in  the 
preceding  lesson.  We  will  first  take  up  the  objections 
that  might  be  offered  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  the 
giving  of  the  regular  sales-talk : 

You'd  better  see  the  advertising  manager.  I  have 
no  time  to  read  books  of  any  kind.  See  that  pile  of 
books  up  there?  I  haven't  read  one  of  them,  tho  I 
bought  them  and  paid  for  them.  What  is  the  use  in 
buying  a  book  if  you  know  in  advance  you  can't  read 
it?" 

Reply:  ''Mr.  Smith,  you  read  your  newspaper  every 
day — why?  Because  it  contains  something  of  vital  in- 
terest to  you — possibly  market  reports. 

''The  most  vital  thing  in  your  business  is  knowing 
how  to  make  your  customers  buy  your  goods,  and  getting 
them  sold  at  the  smallest  possible  cost. 

"You  are  the  one  man  in  the  world  who  knows  your 
business  down  to  the  ground,  and  the  one  man  in  the 
world  who  ought  to  know  your  customers  and  their 
needs  down  to  the  ground. 

"In  this  book  is  the  secret  of  getting  what  you  know 
about  your  goods  into  the  minds  of  the  customers  whose 
natures  you  understand — in  the  cheapest  possible  way — 
a  scientific  way. 

"The  President  of  the  Northern  Egg  Company  says 
that  he  values  his  time  at  $30  an  hour,  and  he  spent 
fifteen  hours  in  reading  part  of  that  book.  The  very 
next  day  he  applied  one  suggestion  to  persuading  a 
customer  to  accept  a  carload  of  eggs  which,  for  an 
unfair  reason,  had  been  refused ;  and  what  he  saved  on 
that  one  transaction  more  than  repaid  him  for  those 
fifteen  hours  of  his  time  at  $30  an  hour. 

"You  can  put  that  book  in  your  pocket  and  read  only 
a  page  or  two  at  a  time  while  you  are  coming  and  going 
between  your  house  and  your  office,  and  if  you  get 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  471 


only  one  useful  suggestion  on  this  immensely  important 
matter,  it  will  repay  you  many  times  over  for  the  cost 
of  the  book  and  the  value  of  your  time." 

Objection:  ^^Go  and  talk  with  the  advertising  man- 
ager. I  haven't  time  to  bother  with  any  of  those 
matters." 

Reply:  *^Mr.  Smith,  selling  your  goods  is  the  most 
important  and  the  most  expensive  item  in  your  business. 
Success  in  doing  that  depends  on  knowing  that  you 
offer  what  nobody  else  on  earth  is  offering,  and  in 
knowing  just  how  the  minds  of  your  customers  will  best 
receive  that  knowledge. 

'^You  are  the  one  man  in  this  business  who  really 
knows  both  of  those  things,  and  you  couldn't  spend  your 
time  to  better  advantage  than  in  finding  out  just  how 
those  two  things  can  be  brought  together.  If  you  can 
write  one  letter  about  your  goods  that  will  just  suit  the 
minds  of  your  customers,  your  advertising  manager  and 
your  correspondents  can  work  that  one  letter  over  a 
thousand  times.  One  good  phrase,  one  good  sales  idea, 
may  be  worth  thousands  of  dollars  to  you. 

'^This  late  scientific  book  has  actually  helped  many 
other  busy  business  men  like  you  to  think  out  new 
selling-ideas  that  have  been  worth  thousands  to  them. 
You  are  the  man  who  really  ought,  first  of  all,  to  get 
to  the  bottom  of  this  book.  It  is  you  who  can  profit 
far  more  than  any  other  one  person  in  your  entire 
establishment. ' ' 

Objection:  These  ideas  may  be  all  right  for  some 
businesses,  but  ours  is  different  from  any  other  business, 
and  I  don't  see  how  we  could  do  any  of  these  things. 
We  are  not  a  mail-order  house,  and  we  don't  want  to 
be." 

Reply:  ^^Mr.  Smith,  it  is  quite  true  that  your  busi- 
ness is  different  from  all  others,  and  in  just  so  far  as 


472        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


it  is  different  do  you  have  a  chance  to  build  up  a  great 
success — build  up  a  monopoly. 

^^But  you  must  not  forget  that  there  is  your  business 
on  the  one  side,  and  there  is  human  nature  on  the  other. 
Human  nature  is  much  the  same  all  over  the  world.  Mr. 
Cody  found  his  principles  of  dealing  with  human  nature 
applied  in  Italy,  and  his  book  has  been  translated  into 
Italian;  he  found  they  applied  in  France,  and  his  book 
has  been  translated  into  French  under  the  editorial 
direction  of  the  Inspector  General  of  Technical  Educa- 
tion of  the  French  government;  and  they  applied  in 
Germany,  and  a  German  version  has  been  made. 

^'You  know  your  business  a  thousand  times  better 
than  the  author  of  this  book;  but,  ten  to  one,  he  knows 
the  art  of  dealing  with  human  nature  in  written  sales- 
manship many  times  better  than  you.  If  to  your  knowl- 
edge of  your  special  business  you 'can  add  his  special 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  using  words  so  as  to  make 
people  do  things,  you  should  be  twice  as  successful  as 
you  are  to-day.  This  book  is  a  scientific  treatise  on 
How  to  Deal  with  Human  Nature,  and  that  means 
your  customers,  which,  as  human  beings,  are  very  much 
like  other  customers. 

' '  This  is  not  a  book  on  the  mail-order  business  in  any 
sense  of  the  word.  It  is  a  work  on  written  salesman- 
ship— that  is,  advertising  from  the  salesmanship  point 
of  view,  however  and  wherever  it  may  be  applied." 

Tertiary  Selling-Talk  for  the  Business-Manager 

We  will  suppose  that  the  first  talk  is  successful,  and 
the  business  man  says:  ''All  right,  I  will  buy  one  copy 
and  put  it  where  all  members  of  the  office  force  can 
get  at  it." 

Eeply :  ' '  Pardon  me,  but  it  is  not  only  a  matter  of 
having  a  good  idea,  but  of  getting  that  idea  into  the 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  473 


heads  of  the  persons  who  ought  to  use  it.  That  is  a 
special  psychological  problem. 

^ '  Put  that  book  in  your  library,  where  all  your  clerks 
can  go  and  read  it  if  they  want  to,  and  you  may  set  it 
down  right  now  that  they  never  will  look  at  it. 

''I  want  the  privilege  of  educating  them  one  at  a  time 
on  the  great  importance  of  owning  this  book  and  study- 
ing it. 

**You  are  the  one  to  profit  most — ^your  business  will 
get  the  first  returns  of  applying  these  ideas  to  your 
correspondence,  the  daily  salesmanship  of  your  office 
force.  You  ought  to  pay  half  the  cost  of  each  book. 
But  each  correspondent  or  stenographer  ought  to  pay 
the  other  half,  that  you  may  be  sure  he  or  she  will  take 
proper  interest  in  the  book  and  study  it. 

*^Will  you  give  me  a  chance  to  talk  to  each  one 
individually?  And  will  you  pay  half  if  I  succeed  in 
getting  him  or  her  to  pay  the  other  half?" 

The  sharp,  quick,  sudden  way  you  put  this  question 
will  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  getting  a  favorable 
answer.  If  you  are  half-hearted,  hesitating,  or  speak- 
ing in  too  low  a  voice,  you  may  almost  know  in  advance 
that  you  will  get  a  negative  answer. 

If  you  can  get  a  favorable  expression  of  opinion  about 
the  book  which  you  can  repeat  to  the  subordinates,  that 
will  help  you  not  a  little.  This  you  can  give  by  saying, 
^'Mr.  Smith  says,"  etc.,  quoting  just  the  tersest  phrase 
in  his  remark.  You  should  be  sharply  on  the  watch  for 
any  strong  phrase  or  original  remark  that  might  help 
you,  which  you  can  remember  and  write  down  the 
moment  you  are  free.  A  strong  phrase  in  a  letter  is 
still  better,  but  you  are  much  more  likely  to  pick  up  a 
chance  remark  that  may  be  very  influential. 

Should  you  need  additional  arguments  to  induce  the 


474        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


head  of  the  business  to  help  you  interest  the  office  force, 
you  may  make  use  of  the  following: 

'^The  office  force  might  become  a  powerful  sales 
agency,  but  usually  it  only  handles  the  routine  inquiries 
that  come  in,  in  a  routine  way. 

*^The  salesman  might  get  an  order  in  half  the  time 
now  required  if  the  customer  had  been  properly  edu- 
cated by  letter  on  the  more  important  points  he  was 
going  to  present. 

*^The  advertising  man  spends  hundreds  of  dollars  to 
bring  inquiries,  but  the  returns  in  dividends  depend  on 
what  you  get  out  of  these  inquiries,  not  only  this  year, 
but  next  year,  and  the  year  after.  The  warm,  personal 
interest  in  these  customers  which  you  personally  can  not 
show,  your  correspondents  could  infuse  into  every  letter 
they  write,  if  they  only  knew  how,  and  that  would  mean 
just  as  much  business  as  the  warm,  personal  interest 
which  the  salesmen  show  when  they  call  on  customers. 

*^When  a  good  customer  sends  in  his  orders  regularly, 
you  just  let  him  alone.  You  save  your  best  bargains 
and  special  offers  for  the  customer  who  is  hard  to  get ; 
you  give  your  favors  to  the  irritable  customer  who  kicks. 
Intelligent  attention  to  each  one  of  your  best  old  cus- 
tomers probably  would  get  you  more  business  than  any 
other  single  thing  you  could  do. 

*'A  girl  in  a  department  store  in  Pittsburgh,  Mr. 
Sheldon  tells  us,  worked  up  such  a  business  over  her 
counter  through  telephoning  or  writing  every  one  of 
her  old  customers  whenever  she  heard  of  a  special  bar- 
gain or  good  offer  that  she  was  actually  getting  $3,000 
a  year  salary,  while  the  other  girls  beside  her  were  get- 
ting $4  to  $7  a  week.  She  did  it  by  giving  special 
attention  to  old  customers,  and  letting  them  have  first 
news  of  all  the  best  bargains. 

'^Then  here  is  another  thing:  Your  high-priced  man- 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  475 


agers  are  answering  hundreds  of  routine  simple  letters 
that  your  stenographers  might  answer  just  as  well  or 
better.  Mr.  Cody  in  this  book  tells  you  just  how  he 
handles  a  large  correspondence,  every  letter  in  his  own 
words  and  in  his  best  style,  yet  written  by  his  stenog- 
rapher without  his  direct  knowledge,  and  signed  with 
his  name  tho  he  never  sees  the  letter  or  its  answer. 
This  is  done  by  the  Form  Paragraph  System,  which  is 
utterly  valueless  unless  the  stenographer  knows  what  a 
good  letter  is  when  she  sees  one,  even  if  she  can't  write 
one.  This  book  will  help  her  to  get  an  idea  of  what  will 
pull  business  for  you,  and  soon  she  will  be  able  to  take 
just  as  good  care  of  simple  letters  as  a  correspondent 
whose  time  is  worth  double. 

Writing  letters  from  the  office  is  usually  blind  work, 
because  the  office  people  never  see  the  customers,  and 
do  not  know  what  they  want,  or  even  what  they  are 
like.  If  this  book  will  stir  up  even  one  of  your  em- 
ployees to  study  your  customers,  the  human  nature 
from  which  you  must  get  business,  that  increased  knowl- 
edge of  the  persons  you  are  writing  to  will  be  worth 
more  than  the  cost  of  the  book.  This  is  a  book  on  How 
to  Deal  "With  Human  Nature,  How  to  Use  Words  so  as 
to  Make  People  Do  Things,  and  that  is  what  those  who 
sit  all  day  in  an  office  need  most  to  know." 

Not  all  of  these  arguments  can  probably  be  used  with 
any  one  man,  but  the  good  solicitor  will  have  plenty  of 
arguments  in  store  to  draw  on  in  case  of  need.  The 
reserve  is  usually  exceedingly  important,  the  thing  that 
turns  the  tide  in  many  a  battle. 

Primary  Selling-Talk  for  the  Employee 

After  you  have  learned  the  selling-talk  for  the  man- 
ager, it  will  be  very  hard  to  change  your  line  of  argu- 
ment suddenly  so  as  to  adapt  your  appeal  to  the  em- 


476        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


ployee,  but  that  is  what  you  must  do  if  you  are  to 
make  sales. 

The  manager  is  interested  in  increasing  his  business, 
and  the  employee  in  increasing  his  salary.  The  em- 
ployee will  not  spend  his  own  money,  nor  give  time  out- 
side of  business  hours,  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the 
income  of  the  manager.  You  must  get  that  clearly  in 
mind. 

"What  he  will  spend  money  for  is  to  increase  his  own 
salary  and  if  increasing  the  income  for  the  manager 
will  result  in  his  getting  more  salary,  then  there  is  a 
chance  of  interesting  him  to  purchase. 

In  an  office  there  are  two  classes  of  employees — 
department  managers  who  write  letters,  and  stenog- 
raphers who  take  down  those  letters  from  dictation. 
The  man  who  is  writing  letters  can  appreciate  the  fine 
points  of  human  appeal,  the  arrangement,  the  emphasis, 
and  the  force.  The  stenographer  who  has  never  written 
letters  at  all  could  not  possibly  be  interested  in  any  of 
these  fine  points — the  argument  would  need  to  be  en- 
tirely on  the  value  and  importance  of  rising  out  of  the 
class  of  the  mere  stenographer  into  that  of  the  corres- 
pondent, with  at  least  $5  a  week  more  salary. 

We  will  take  up  first  the  canvass  for  the  department 
manager  or  correspondent  on  the  same  book  that  we 
have  solicited  the  general  manager  upon.  Here  is  a 
canvass  that  might  be  given  (the  book,  of  course,  con- 
cealed) : 

*'Did  you  ever  hear  the  story  of  the  young  man  who 
is  now  the  advertising  manager  of  the  Eoyal  Tailors, 
who  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  was  getting  a  salary  of 
$12,000  a  year? 

''He  went  to  Chicago  at  the  age  of  sixteen  and  got  a 
job  with  the  System  Magazine  at  $12  a  week.  Mr.  Shaw 
promised  him  a  raise  to  $15  a  week  if  he  would  write  a 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OP  SELLING  477 


sales-letter  that  would  pull  $15  to  1,000  form-letters 
mailed.    After  working  about  a  month  he  succeeded. 

Three  years  later  he  had  his  salary  advanced  to 
$2,500  a  year  and  got  a  better  offer  outside.  Mr.  Shaw 
persuaded  him  to  stay  at  $2,500  with  the  promise  of  a 
commission  on  all  sales  of  2  per  cent.,  the  $2,500  to  be 
covered  first,  and  then  any  additional  commission  earned 
to  be  added  to  his  pay.  That  year  he  rolled  up  nearly 
$400,000  worth  of  business,  almost  exclusively  by  letter, 
and  his  commissions  totaled  nearly  $8,000. 

^^That  merely  indicates  what  it  means  to  be  able  to 
Write  Letters  and  Advertisements  that  Pull.  It's  the 
great  scientific  business  game  to-day,  and  the  young 
man  who  can  master  it  can  command  almost  any  salary 
he  may  name. 

''Just  read  that  letter  from  a  young  Jap,  who  was 
employed  in  the  store  of  a  conservative  old  uncle  in 
New  York,  who  would  hardly  spend  the  money  to  print 
a  simple  circular.  At  last  he  persuaded  him  to  mail  out 
350  form-letters  to  as  many  old  customers,  offering  a 
$15  table-cover  on  which  the  house  was  stuck.  You  see 
what  results  he  got,  and  you  can  very  well  imagine  how 
the  old  man  was  converted  to  advertising. 

''Here  is  another  copy  of  a  letter  from  a  correspon- 
dent with  the  post-office  fixture  trust.  He  was  getting 
$25  a  week.  After  he  got  that  great  increase  in  returns 
from  his  letters  his  salary  was  raised  to  $30  and  then  to 
$35. 

"This  page  gives  three  letters  from  L.  H.  Estep, 
assistant  manager  of  the  R.  D.  Nuttall  Company.  He 
had  a  pretty  good  position  under  a  relative,  who  was 
the  general  manager.  His  increased  business  did  not 
bring  him  a  raise  from  this  concern,  but  a  few  months 
afterward  he  did  get  a  splendid  position,  and  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Cody  that  he  was  told  that  it  was  his  strong 


478        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


letters  that  more  than  anything  else  influenced  the  choice 
of  him  out  of  a  very  large  number  of  applicants  for 
the  position. 

''H.  W.  Fleming,  with  the  Ralston  Health  Shoe  Com- 
pany of  Campello,  Mass.,  was  getting  $15  a  week  as 
assistant  to  the  advertising  manager,  and  was  convinced 
he  never  would  get  much  more.  Mr.  Cody  advised  him 
to  stick  and  work  for  skill  in  writing  Pulling  Letters. 
Under  protest  he  did  remain  where  he  was,  and  about 
a  year  later  he  wrote  that  his  salary  had  been  doubled. 

'  ^  In  this  book  Mr.  Cody  has  condensed  the  high-priced 
correspondence  course  which  enabled  all  of  these  young 
men  to  get  their  salaries  increased.  It  is  a  treatise  on 
the  practical  psychology  of  How  to  Deal  With  Human 
Nature  in  Business,  How  to  Use  Words  so  as  to  Make 
People  Do  Things. 

^^I  should  just  like  to  have  you  take  a  glance  at  Mr. 
Cody's  summary  of  How  You  Can  Write  Letters  and 
Advertisements  That  Pull.  He  has  put  his  whole 
philosophy  into  a  few  lines.  It  starts  here  on  page  60 ; 
but  I  should  like  to  have  you  read  the  points  under 
section  5,  pages  61-63.  Mentally  test  your  letters  by  this 
summary : 

'a.  Have  you  covered  every  point  with  absolute 
clearness,  just  as  you  would  explain  to  a  child?'  " 

Go  on  and  read  the  opening  sentence  only  of  each 
section  a,  h,  c,  d,  e,  etc. 

The  point  about  writing  a  letter  neither  too  long  nor 
too  short  will  make  it  possible  to  turn  easily  to  page  127, 
''When  to  Write  a  Short  Letter  and  When  to  Write  a 
Long  Letter,"  and  then  go  on  with  the  canvass  on  the 
book  as  used  for  the  business  man.  The  explanation  of 
the  contents  of  the  book  will  do  just  as  well  for  the 
department  manager  if  you  start  at  this  point  and  go  on. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  479 


Secondary  Selling-Talk  for  the  Employee 

The  employee  will  be  much  harder  to  convince  than 
the  business  man,  because  as  a  rule  he  is  less  ambitious, 
he  has  less  to  gain,  and  he  is  much  less  able  to  afford 
the  expense.  He  is  also  likely  to  think  he  knows  it  all. 
He  says,  ^'I  am  already  a  good  correspondent." 

^^My  dear  Mr.  Blank,  I  have  no  doubt  you  are  a  good 
correspondent,  and  that  is  just  why  I  am  making  this 
appeal  to  you.  You  are  the  sort  of  person  who  will 
appreciate  and  be  able  to  use  the  new  scientific  methods 
of  building  up  business. 

There  is  almost  no  limit  to  what  may  be  accom- 
plished if  you  keep  on  trying.  Mr.  Estep  was  a  good 
correspondent  when  he  learned  to  be  a  better  one.  Mr. 
Gard,  with  the  post-office  fixture  trust,  was  a  good  cor- 
respondent, and  by  his  letters  he  was  already  getting 
some  $3,000  from  120  inquiries;  but  by  applying  the 
new  scientific  methods  he  was  able  to  get  $7,698 — more 
than  double  return. 

^^Here  is  a  new  field.  There  is  little  competition,  for 
the  building  up  of  business  by  letter  has  developed 
chiefiy  in  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years.  The  way  to 
make  money  is  to  get  out  of  the  crowd. 

'^Advertising  is  really  only  in  its  infancy.  In  the 
United  States  there  are  some  million  business  concerns. 
Of  these  you  will  find  but  20,000  in  McKittrick's  Direc- 
tory of  Advertisers — and  you  will  find  in  that  everybody 
who  even  thought  of  advertising.  Just  think — only  one 
in  seventy.  If  there  were  advertising  writers  who  could 
really  produce  the  business  do  you  suppose  those 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  business  men  would  not  come 
into  the  field.  The  trouble  is,  they  don't  know  how  to 
make  it  pay,  and  they  do  not  know  where  to  find  any- 
body who  does  know  how.'' 


480        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


Another  objection  will  be,  ''You  can't  learn  those 
things  from  books.  It  is  a  talent  that  some  men  are  born 
with/' 

''I  want  to  ask  you,  Is  common  sense  a  talent?  Is 
knowing  what  you  have  to  sell  that  people  want,  a 
talent  ?  Does  it  take  genius  to  tell  a  friend  about  some- 
thing you  know  he  wants  and  has  not  been  able  to  find? 

''Yet  Mr.  Cody  shows  you  how  these  simple  steps 
can  be  taken  in  scientific  order.  A  simple  system  of 
doing  common-sense  things  ought  to  be  of  more  real  use 
to  you  than  anything  else  in  the  book  line  that  you 
ever  spent  a  dollar  on. 

"Of  course,  you've  got  to  do  your  part.  You've  got 
to  slip  the  book  in  your  pocket  and  put  in  fifteen 
minutes  a  day  or  even  fifteen  minutes  a  week.  If  you 
do  that,  there  can  be  no  doubt  on  earth  that  you  will  get 
many  times  the  value  of  the  book ;  and  you  will  find  it 
extremely  entertaining  and  stimulating. 

"May  I  not  send  you  a  copy?" 

A  nod  is  all  you  want.  The  moment  you  get  that, 
stop  talking,  thank  him  for  his  order,  shake  hands,  and 
leave.    If  you  go  on  talking  he  may  change  his  mind. 

The  Importance  of  a  Logical  Chain 

Logic  is  the  science  of  the  relationship  of  ideas,  just 
as  grammar  is  the  science  of  the  relationships  of  words 
in  sentences.  Every  mind  works  along  the  lines  of  the 
principles  of  logic,  from  cause  to  effect.  A  good  selling- 
talk  must  be  a  complete  logical  chain,  and  one  break  in 
the  reasoning  will  spoil  it  just  as  much  as  a  break  in 
one  link  of  an  iron  chain  would  spoil  the  chain. 

Logic  requires  that  you  start  with  some  "premise" — 
some  fact  or  facts  that  you  assume.  In  this  case  it  is 
the  position  and  needs  of  the  person  you  are  talking  to. 
You,  therefore,  see  how  important  it  is  to  know  the 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  481 


position  and  character  of  the  person  to  whom  you  talk, 
so  that  you  may  know  what  kind  of  argument  will 
reach  him.  If  you  start  with  the  idea  that  you  are 
talking  to  a  business  manager,  and  find  you  are  talking 
to  a  stenographer,  you  can  see  you  have  made  a  mistake 
at  the  start,  in  your  original  premises,  which  will  com- 
pletely throw  you  off  the  track. 

We  have  studied  two  different  lines  of  sales  argu- 
ment— first  for  the  business  manager,  then  for  the  de- 
partment manager  or  employed  correspondent,  and 
there  is  another  for  the  stenographer.  The  appeal  to 
each  starts  from  a  different  point,  and  proceeds  along 
quite  different  lines. 

You  can  also  see  why  it  is  wrong  to  permit  the  con- 
versation to  ramble.  If  the  prospect  leads  you  off  on 
some  sidetrack,  however  interesting  it  may  be,  you  are 
soon  lost  in  the  wilderness,  and  your  chain  of  argument 
is  broken  so  you  can  never  mend  it  again.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly dangerous  to  allow  yourself  to  be  led  aside  at  all. 

In  a  way,  also,  you  forge  the  links  of  your  chain  as 
you  go.  Obviously,  you  do  not  want  a  chain  any  longer 
than  is  absolutely  necessary.  "Whenever  you  can  safely 
omit  links  because  they  are  not  needed,  in  all  cases  you 
should  shorten  your  argument,  but  you  should,  of  course, 
always  be  careful  not  to  leave  any  broken  links,  but  to 
weld  your  second  stage  on  to  your  first,  so  it  will  be 
quite  strong  and  clean. 

Many  a  sale  has  been  killed  through  talking  after  the 
prospect  was  convinced,  until  he  has  begun  again  to  get 
doubts,  to  become  weary,  and,  perhaps,  finally  change  his 
mind  altogether. 

The  only  way  to  be  sure  of  the  logical  chain  is  to  go 
over  the  argument  again  and  again  until  nothing  that 
may  happen  will  throw  you  off  the  track. 

Then  you  should  practise  keeping  your  eye  on  your 


482        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


prospect  and  cutting  short  your  talk  whenever  you  see 
that  he  is  ripe  for  closing,  yet  without  leaving  any  ragged 
or  broken  logical  links  that  after  all  may  bother  you. 

Give  one  or  other  of  these  canvasses  while  the  teacher 
or  another  student  asks  questions  of  a  simple  and 
natural  kind,  which  might,  however,  cause  the  salesman 
to  lose  his  logical  sequence. 

The  Importance  of  Enthusiasm 

The  logical  chain  is  the  appeal  to  the  reason. 

But  more  people  do  things  because  they  ^'feel  like  it" 
than  because  they  believe  in  cold  blood  that  it  is  the 
wisest  thing. 

The  most  successful  book  salesman  in  the  United  States 
(so  he  was  said  to  be  at  the  time)  once  remarked  in 
regard  to  his  success,  ''AH  I  do  is  to  go  around  and 
enthuse  'em  up."  His  use  of  the  word  was  not  good 
English,  but  his  method  of  selling  was  absolutely  correct. 

Any  salesman  who  can  not  get  up  real,  live  enthu- 
siasm will  never  make  a  success. 

To  be  enthusiastic,  you  must  first  be  convinced  your- 
self— ^you  must  believe  with  all  your  heart  and  soul  that 
you  are  going  to  do  your  prospect  one  of  the  best  turns 
he  ever  received  in  his  life.  If  you  have  doubts,  you 
may  be  pretty  sure  he  will  have  doubts,  and  you  will 
never  get  over  these  doubts. 

Then  you  must  learn  how  to  throw  your  enthusiastic 
feelings  into  your  words.  Go  in,  as  you  would  go  into 
a  football-game,  to  win,  and  nothing  else.  Unless  you 
have  learned  what  the  Great  Pleasure  of  Playing  the 
Game  is  you  are  not  a  born  salesman. 

Let  us  go  back  over  our  canvass  again  and  see  how 
much  enthusiasm  we  can  throw  into  it — into  the  voice, 
into  the  manner,  into  the  light  in  the  eye.  It  comes 
with  practise.    We  must  forget  ourselves,  and  talk  as 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  483 


if  we  were  really  saving  the  business  life  of  our  prospect. 
The  teacher  should  direct  which  canvass  to  go  over — 
the  one  that  needs  the  most  ginger  put  into  it,  or  else 
the  one  on  which  the  student  can  best  succeed. 

The  Importance  of  Persistence 

Nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  this  world  fail  because 
they  do  not  try  hard  enough.  They  make  a  feeble  at- 
tempt, do  not  get  results,  become  discouraged,  and  give 
up  the  attempt. 

Persistence  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  hanging  to  a 
man  when  he  doesn't  want  to  talk  to  you,  as  smiling, 
trying  to  find  out  when  he  can  talk,  and  coming  around 
again  in  a  pleasant  way  till  you  get  him  just  right,  and 
then  starting  into  your  argument  and  sticking  to  it  as 
long  as  the  prospect  wants  you  to.  If  it  gets  to  be  six 
o'clock  and  time  for  dinner,  and  you  are  hungry  and 
would  like  to  go  home,  and  perhaps  the  prospect  would 
too,  but  still  he  isn't  quite  convinced  and  is  willing  to 
stay  a  little  longer  to  finish  it  up,  never  you  suggest  or 
even  hint  that  you  are  hungry  or  don't  care  to  stay — 
stick  to  it  till  you  get  your  man.  The  writer  of  this 
remembers  that  once  he  called  on  the  manager  of  the 
Minneapolis  Journal  to  sell  a  syndicate  feature  costing 
about  a  thousand  dollars  a  year.  The  editor  was  away 
in  Mexico,  and  the  manager  said  he  could  decide  nothing 
till  he  had  consulted  the  editor.  Still  he  talked  the 
matter  over  so  he  could  write  to  the  editor  about  it. 
At  noon  on  the  third  day  he  said,  ^^Well,  come  around 
at  four  o'clock."  So  the  salesman  came  around  at  four 
o'clock  and  started  in  on  the  last  round.  He  wanted 
an  order  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  the  editor.  The 
circulation  manager  was  there.  So  the  three  talked  hard 
and  fast.  A  train  was  leaving  Minneapolis  at  7 :30, 
which  it  was  highly  desirable  to  take.    The  salesman 


484        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


was  hungry  and  tired.  But  he  stuck  right  to  his  job 
with  all  his  enthusiasm  on  tap,  and  finally,  at  half -past 
six,  the  manager  said  he  must  rush  to  catch  the  last  train 
that  would  get  him  home  for  dinner,  and  as  he  went  he 
told  the  circulation  manager  he  might  as  well  sign  the 
contract.  It  took  half  an  hour  to  get  the  contract  drawn 
just  right  and  signed,  and  then  there  was  just  half  an 
hour  to  catch  the  7:30  train  for  Omaha.  Dinner  had 
to  go  by  the  board,  but  that  thousand-dollar  contract 
was  mailed  to  the  home  office,  and  the  service  was  con- 
tinued for  three  years.  It  was  worth  missing  dinner 
for.  The  salesman  was  exhausted  physically  by  reason 
of  the  effort  he  had  made ;  but  he  had  won. 

The  need  for  persistence  is  the  bottom  reason  for  the 
primary,  secondary,  and  tertiary  selling-talks,  and  each 
should  gain  force  over  the  other.  Good  arguments  must 
be  held  back,  yet  without  weakening  the  primary  talk. 

Let  each  student  test  himself  on  making  an  hour's  talk 
on  the  same  canvass,  not  getting  weaker  toward  the  end, 
but  getting  stronger,  even  to  making  a  whirlwind  finish. 
This  will  be  the  most  difficult  test  of  all.  It  will  take 
repeated  trials  in  order  to  come  out  stronger  at  the  end 
than  anywhere  else,  and  ending  with  a  weaker  manner 
or  argument  will  be  fatal. 

The  Danger  of  Excessive  Persistence 

Mr.  Sheldon  lays  emphasis  on  the  dangers  of  negative 
suggestions  which  result  in — 
Unfavorable  attention, 
Indifference, 
Dislike,  and  finally 
Repulsion. 

A  man  may  attract  attention  by  standing  on  his  head, 
shooting  off  a  pistol,  or  something  else  equally  disagree- 
able, but  it  would  be  unfavorable  attention.    That  is 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  485 


probably  the  attention  obtained  by  deceitful  patent- 
medicine  advertisements  which  lead  the  reader  to  think 
he  is  perusing  a  bit  of  interesting  news,  only  to  find 
at  the  end  that  Dr.  So-and-So's  pills  are  recommended. 

In  actual  canvassing,  the  negative  mental  states  are 
likely  to  be  the  direct  result  of  the  very  elements  that 
produce  the  favorable  mental  states,  such  as  enthusiasm, 
persistence,  etc.  Excess  of  anything  is  always  an  evil. 
Be  too  good  and  you  are  goody-goody ;  be  too  persistent 
and  you  become  an  intolerable  bore. 

The  corrective  is  what  Mr.  Sheldon  calls  the  '4aw  of 
non-resistance."  You  can't  usually  push  anybody  into 
buying.  You  must  lead.  You  are  the  leader,  the 
director;  but  unless  the  prospect  follows  WILLINGLY 
you  must  stop  at  once.  From  one  point  of  view  you 
must  do  the  following,  after  all.  You  must  watch  the 
mind  of  the  possible  customer  and  confine  yourself  to 
helping  him,  not  to  forcing  him. 

If  a  customer  begins  to  argue  with  you,  agree  with 
him.  From  his  point  of  view  he  is  probably  right. 
Admit  that  frankly.  But  start  on  another  tack  that  will 
bring  before  his  mind  new  circumstances  he  had  not 
considered,  which  will  alter  his  view. 

The  moment  the  prospect  gives  some  sign  to  indicate 
that  he  doesn't  want  to  listen  to  you  any  longer,  don't 
hang  on,  because  hanging  on  will  simply  develop  those 
unfavorable  mental  states  that  will  prevent  your  ever 
getting  an  order. 

The  power  of  yielding  like  rubber  to  the  sudden  or 
decided  movements  of  the  mind  of  the  prospect,  yet 
pressing  steadily  back  like  rubber  when  his  impulse  has 
expended  itself,  is  the  only  correct  attitude  for  the 
salesman.  It  requires  long  and  hard  mental  training 
to  get  that  pliability,  that  power  to  bend  easily  without 
breaking,  of  adapting  oneself  to  the  customer,  to  be 


486        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


always  his  servant,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  while  leading  him, 
through  superior  knowledge  of  the  facts  and  greater 
mastery  of  the  situation,  to  one's  own  view. 

The  customer,  and  the  customer  only,  decides.  All 
you  can  do  is  to  help  him  decide  correctly,  supply  his 
deficiencies  of  knowledge  or  feeling  on  this  particular 
subject,  so  that  he  may  do  what  is  really  the  best  possible 
thing  for  him  to  do.  If  you  have  made  a  mistake,  admit 
it  frankly  and  withdraw.  If  he  does  not  see  your 
point,  merely  give  him  further  illustrations,  or  turn  to 
some  other  side  of  the  subject. 

In  the  last  lesson  you  were  asked  to  see  if  you  could 
maintain  an  argument  for  an  hour  with  increasing, 
rather  than  diminishing,  force. 

In  this  lesson  you  must  consider  if  you  can  maintain 
that  argument  for  an  hour  without  boring  the  other 
members  of  your  class  so  they  will  wish  you  would  stop 
before  you  are  halfway  through.  Try  to  relieve  the 
monotony  and  maintain  interest  by  interjecting  a 
question  now  and  then,  and  see  how  their  minds  are 
tending,  and  then  trying  to  adapt  yourself  to  their 
points  of  view.  Go  over  your  various  sales-talks  to  see 
whether  you  are  crowding  anybody  so  hard  that  there 
is  danger  dislike  will  follow,  or  if  there  is  any  tendency 
on  your  part  to  force  your  view. 

The  Secret  of  Success  in  "Closing"  Sales 

One  of  the  hardest  things  to  do  in  salesmanship  is  to 
close''  your  customer — to  get  him  to  decide  one  way 
or  the  other. 

The  secret  of  success  in  closing"  is  found  in  the 
fable  of  the  old  man  and  the  bundle  of  sticks.  You 
can't  break  the  entire  bundle  at  one  effort;  but  if  you 
will  take  each  stick  by  itself  there  will  be  no  trouble  in 
breaking  them  all. 


THE  PRACTICAL  PROCESS  OF  SELLING  487 


Success  in  ^'closing''  depends  on  getting  a  decision 
on  minor  points  as  you  go  along.  When  a  return  postal- 
card  is  sent  out  and  you  get  a  response,  there  was  a 
first  decision  to  write  and  mail  the  inquiry.  That  was 
an  easy  decision  to  make,  but  it  was  the  first  step  toward 
a  final  decision. 

When  you  have  finished  the  first  part  of  your  sales- 
talk,  the  part  intended  to  create  desire,  a  minor  decision 
is  made  to  let  you  go  on  and  tell  what  is  in  the  book. 
That  is  really  a  step  toward  the  final  decision,  and  that 
is  an  important  reason  why  you  ought  not  to  go  on  to 
the  second  part  of  the  talk  unless  the  first  has  been 
effective.  It  is  better  to  go  back  at  once  and  take  up  the 
first  part  of  the  secondary  sales-talk,  and  even  the  ter- 
tiary part,  so  as  not  to  leave  a  hostile  decision  in  your 
rear. 

Then  the  second  part  of  the  talk  is  intended  to  lead 
up  to  the  decision  to  see  the  work.  Unless  you  get  a 
decision  to  look  at  the  book  you  can  not  possibly  hope 
for  a  decision  to  buy  it. 

When  the  price  is  asked,  you  know  the  time  has  come 
to  close  quickly,  and  you  say,  ^'Only  $2.  May  I  send 
you  a  copy?  Thank  you.''  A  nod,  a  moment's  hesi- 
tation is  all  you  want. 

In  selling  merchandise  in  a  store  the  sales-person  often 
gets  a  real  decision  through  getting  first  a  very  minor 
decision — ^Will  you  try  on  this  coat  to  see  how  it  looks  ? 
If  you  were  going  to  buy  a  coat  would  you  want  black 
or  gray?  Would  you  prefer  to  have  this  sent,  or  take 
it  with  you? 

The  art  of  closing"  is  so  important  that  it  requires 
most  persistent  study ;  but  it  grows  naturally  out  of  the 
ability  to  adapt  oneself  to  the  customer  and  follow  his 
mind.  Any  salesman  who  can  do  that  will  make  few 
mistakes.    He  will  observe  some  little  movement  of  the 


488        HUMAN  NATURE  IN  BUSINESS 


body,  some  inflection  of  the  voice,  that  will  tell  him 
instinctively  that  the  decision  has  been  reached,  and  it 
is  time  to  close."  His  whole  work  has  been  to  get  this 
decision.  It  were  worse  than  waste  of  time  to  go  on 
talking  after  it  has  been  reached.  The  human  tendency 
to  finish  the  story,  however,  has  kept  customers  dragging 
along  till  boredom  began  to  set  in,  and  the  favorable 
decision  was  unmade  in  the  mind  through  the  develop- 
ment of  disgust  or  repulsion.  So  the  sale  has  been 
killed  because  of  the  failure  of  the  salesman  to  stop  and 
close  at  the  right  time. 


Success  in  the  art  of  salesmanship  can  be  attained  only 
through  practise.  It  takes  four  hours  a  day  for  some 
years  to  make  a  good  pianist,  and  playing  on  human 
minds  is  surely  no  less  fine  an  art. 


